Its status as the battleground in “Africa’s world war” and possibly the worst place on Earth to be a woman makes it arguably the world’s most counterintuitive holiday destination.
Yet tourism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s ravaged east is doubling by the year as intrepid travelers set out to witness its natural wonders.
From a standing start of zero in 2008, when war was still raging, Virunga national park’s visitor numbers climbed to 550 in 2009, then 1,800 last year, with an expected 3,800 for this year. As a result, this year the oldest national park in Africa expects to raise more than US$1 million.
Among the attractions on offer are an overnight trek to the eruption of the Mount Nyamulagira volcano and tracking through forests to glimpse critically endangered mountain gorillas.
In a sign of growing confidence, Virunga is also due to open its first tourist lodge on Jan. 1, with guests paying US$200 a night in 12 bungalows boasting lava rock walls and thatched roofs.
“Clearly it’s not Spain we’re trying to sell,” said Cai Tjeenk Willink, the park’s business development officer.
Nyamulagira began erupting on Nov. 6 and has several lava fountains spewing up to 200m into the air, with lava flowing slowly north into an uninhabited area of the park, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. The park has set up a tented camp in a safe area close to Nyamulagira, where visitors can stay overnight.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not