Congo's Gorilla War.

Congo's five-year civil war against the regime of President Laurent Kabila has scarred more than the people of that central African nation. Among its victims: the rare gorillas living in Kahuzi Biega National Park, Congo's largest animal refuge. Once a haven for gorillas and elephants and a stopping place for 3,000 tourists each year, the park has turned into a hunting ground for hungry rebel soldiers and poachers, who kill the gorillas for food and sell their severed heads as trophies.

Park authorities guess that 100 to 250 gorillas in the highlands, which represent only about a tenth of the park's land, have been killed in the past three years. And they fear the worst for animals in the other 90 percent of the park's territory, currently controlled by rebels armed with automatic weapons. The park's prewar population of 400 elephants has been reduced to 100. "We are talking about an animal genocide," says one government official.