Two Belgian women on the trail of the forgotten chimpanzees of Congo

02/05/2018

Belgian epidemiologist Anne Laudisoit has discovered the existence of chimpanzees living in unique conditions in Congo and has gone to track them down, filmed by the photojournalist Caroline Thirion.

When Anne Laudisoit first came to this war zone in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was to study a disease that is carried by worms and causes blindness. But when travelling through mountainous areas close to Lake Albert, the two Belgians made quite a different discovery. In patches of forest less than a square kilometre wide, perched in the rolling hills of Congo, families of chimpanzees were thriving far away from all human activity.

So the women returned to find these forgotten primates, accompanied by a team from the University of Kisangani. According to experts, they should not have survived in such a microcosm. The documentary presenting this scientific adventure is due to be shown in autumn 2018. It is a story that will be called Mbudha, sur les traces des chimpanzés (Mbudha, on the trail of the chimpanzees).