The United States government on August 16, announced sanctions on three conservation officials from DR Congo due to their "involvement in significant corruption,” including the trafficking of gorillas and chimpanzees.

The officials were designated as "generally ineligible for entry into the United States,” according to Matthew Miller, the spokesperson of the US State Department.

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They are Cosma Wilungula Balongelwa, the former Director General of Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN); Leonard Muamba Kanda, the former Department Head of the DRC Management Authority for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and Director of ICCN.

The third person is Augustin Ngumbi Amuri, the Director-Coordinator of the DRC CITES Management Authority and Legal Advisor to ICCN.

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"As public officials responsible for wildlife protection, they abused their public positions by trafficking chimpanzees, gorillas, okapi, and other protected wildlife from the DRC, primarily to the People’s Republic of China, using falsified permits, in return for bribes,” Miller said.

He added: "Their corrupt, transnational criminal actions not only undermined rule of law and government transparency in the DRC but also long-standing wildlife conservation efforts.”

Kanda’s wife, Rose Nsele Ngokali and Wilungula’s wife, Esther Mwanga Wilungula were also designated as generally ineligible for entry into the US, Miller said.

DR Congo’s Virunga National Park is home to one third of the world’s mountain gorillas, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies as endangered species.

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The country shares with its neighbours Rwanda and Uganda a tropical rainforest in the volcanic region that is home to around 1,000 mountain gorillas.

Thanks to conservation efforts, the number of the mountain gorillas has increased over the last two decades, which led the IUCN in 2018 to downgrade the status of the great apes from ‘critically endangered’ to ‘endangered’ species.