DRC: New Troubles at the Gates of Virunga

Apr 27, 2014 | Richard Branson, Desmond Tutu, and Howard G. Buffett, The Huffington Post
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The British company SOCO International has recently begun surveying for oil in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Africa's eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Virunga is home to a significant portion of the world's roughly 880 remaining mountain gorillas. Although extracting oil from Virunga is prohibited by current DRC and international law, SOCO maintains its efforts are preliminary, exploratory, legal and designed to bring economic benefits and jobs to the people of DRC.