The Border Lines of the Virunga Mountains
The Virunga Mountain range consists of eight different peaks in a highly volcanic region sometimes called the great lakes of Africa. Despite its physical beauty, it is not traditionally a tourist destination. Only the very brave explorer or the very obsessive researcher makes tracks through this terrain. Careful visitors may be able to tour parts of the Virunga border lines, perhaps even tracking the footsteps of anthropologist Louis Leakey and his followers.
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The Rwanda Border
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The Virunga Mountain border with Rwanda is a blood-soaked terrain still reverberating from the genocide perpetrated there in 1994. The different factions involved in the ethnic cleansing that resulted in more than a million deaths from April to June 1994 are still at odds, making travel inadvisable in that region. Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is where zoologist Dian Fossey was murdered in December 1985. Rwanda's only active volcano is Visoke, located on the Virunga Mountains' border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The DRC
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire, shares the volcanic peaks of Mount Nyamuragira and Nyirabongo at its border with Rwanda. They are active volcanoes that could erupt at any moment. Mount Nyirabongo last erupted in 2002 and poses a constant threat to the border city of Goma. Nyamuragira, Africa's most active volcano, erupted in 2010.
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Uganda
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The Virunga Mountains' eastern border with Uganda was, for years, a no man's land because of mob violence. As of 2006, the Mgahinga Visitor Center makes it a slightly friendlier place for tourists, yet groups and individuals along the border should take care not to risk the ire of Ugandan authorities by appearing to be sympathetic to homosexuals. Anyone suspected of being homosexual will be arrested and imprisoned. Human rights abuses are at a heightened risk along remote border security points.
Virunga National Park
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Some of the last remaining habitat for Virunga Mountain gorillas is within this park, which borders on both Rwanda and the DRC. A large portion of Africa's endangered rain forest is also here. Virunga National Park is the gathering place for those who want to explore the borders between Rwanda, the DRC and Uganda in relative safety. Although there are no guarantees, outsiders should stick to the confines of Virunga National Park.
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- Photo Credit Brent Stirton/Getty Images News/Getty Images
