Number
7 - April 2000
Michel
Louette, Marc Herremans & Alain Reygel in Bull. Br. Orn. Cl. 2000 120 (1)
have reassessed the taxonomy of the
Ruwenzori Turaco Ruwenzorornis johnstoni.
Only
two subspecies were included in the BoA (The Birds of Africa); the
nominate johnstoni from Mt. Ruwenzori and its immediate surroundings in
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, and kivuensis from the other
mountains in the Kivu province and Mt. Kabobo. The third subspecies bredoi
from Mt. Kabobo was merged in kivuensis by BoA.
They
studied 136 specimens with special regard to the feathered or bare eye rim; johnstoni
with a bare eye rim, kivuensis with feathered eye rim and bredoi
again with a bare eye rim.
Their
taxonomic conclusion was that further study is required to decide if the Ruwenzorornis
populations indeed form one species, but that this is likely to be the case.
Zoogeographically
inconsistent is the fact that the “bare patch” populations: johnstoni
to the north and bredoi
to the south, are separated by the “feathered” population.
They
consider the synonymizing of bredoi
with johnstoni
to be a premature action. They advocate the use of 3 subspecies in Ruwenzorornis
johnstoni: nominate,
bredoi
and kivuensis.
They
also feel that merging Ruwenzorornis
with Musophaga,
as advocated by BoA,
is a poor decision.
Localities
of specimens examined and delimitation of the five geographical populations
studied (filled circles); j; johnstoni,
b;
bredoi,
V;
Virunga area, N; Nyungwe, I; Itombwe. In order to complete the
world range of the species, the records from Burundi and Uganda are added as
open circles.
____________________________________________
D.R.C.
- A Bird Checklist
by
Tommy Pedersen
“Democratic
Republic of Congo - Bird Checklist” is finally completed, and a copy can be
obtained from the author. It lists a total of 1.119 species.
____________________________________________
Tribal
war on the Lendu plateau
The Lendu
plateau is well known for its population of Prigogine’s Greenbul Chlorocichla
prigoninei, Chapin’s Flycatcher Muscicapa lendu lendu and
Chapin’s Crombec Sylvietta [leucophrys] chapini.
The plateau
was last visited by birders in 1994, when Prigogine’s Greenbul was observed.
Unfortunately, it seems like the war further south in the country has reached
Lendu, as described in the brief article below.
With
Nothing to Stop It,Tribal War Ravages Congo
By
Karl Vick
As
many as 7,000 people have been killed and 150,000 forced from their homes in the
remote forest villages above Lake
Albert in northeastern Congo since June 1999, when residents and aid workers say
brutal ethnic warfare erupted over who owns a particular hill. Lendu tribesmen
armed with machetes and arrows have moved from village to village, killing and
maiming. Miles of burned out huts line the roads.
The conflict between the agrarian Lendu and the herding Hema reflects the
combative atmosphere that plagues Congo. Each side blames--in addition to one
another--the absence of the government authority that historically restrained
their rage.
The area has no court or prison system, and minimal public services.
"If there were a well-established government in place, an ethnic rivalry
between two tribes would have never reached this stage of violence," said
Richard Ndjango, a Red Cross worker in Blukwa, where 416 people, mainly women
and children, were killed in a raid on January 9th 2000 that was tape
recorded.
Residents say the massacres intensified as parties to the larger war negotiated
a peace accord July 10 in Lusaka, Zambia, and the first U.N. military observers
flew into the area, including the local provincial capital of Bunia, to monitor
it. The bloodletting at Blukwa, the worst slaughter to date, came during
"Africa Month," as the United States dubbed the agenda it set at the
U.N. Security Council
through January.
In the afterglow of the U.N. session, which brought the principal combatants to
New York for speeches and interviews, the United States moved to authorize an
initial deployment of 5,537 U.N. troops to
Congo. The force would not intervene directly to stop bloodshed, but
would safeguard the security of the unarmed U.N. observers assigned to monitor
compliance with the Lusaka accord.
The Lendu have been farming in the area since the 16th century, but when the
Hema arrived about 100 years ago,
they brought cows and a head for business, residents say. Today Hema own
virtually
all the stores in Bunia, and in the countryside they compete for land with Lendu
farmers, especially in the fertile hills to the north.
©
The Washington Post Company
Washington
Post Foreign Service, February 16, 2000