On March 31st, the so expected decision of the DRC Wildlife authority (ICCN) was announced: for the coming month and from the second April on, J.A.C.K. will be totally locked down as a result of the so many precautionary measures that are being taken by the government to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Kinshasa, the capital of the DR Congo, is already infected and so are cities of a few other DRC provinces. No Covid-19 cases have been really confirmed in Lubumbashi and this is why the ICCN (DRC Institute of National Parks) and J.A.C.K. Founders decided to anticipate. Remember: this is a brand new virus and we don’t know what impact it can have on chimpanzees…
ICCN Provincial Director of Greater Katanga, Mr MUIR Robert, came at the sanctuary to share his decision. J.A.C.K. is no longer allowed to accept visitors and its personnel has been asked to stay at the complex with the chimpanzees. The ICCN Rangers ensuring the security of the sanctuary have to stick to the same rules. And both Founders, Franck and Roxane, have been asked to take good care of the teams staying at the centre as they are the only ones allowed to enter the place to provide food and equipment.
The Rangers and J.A.C.K. team were aware of this decision and had accepted the lock down of the sanctuary. The Founders provide them with food, have bought items for their accomodation (matrasses, mosquito nets, buckets, cooing ustensils, etc), have offered weekly airtime for the workers to call their families and athey were also given a bonus to store food for the families. This decision represents a huge sacrifice for all of them especially in these very particular times (disease, growing insecurity due to increasing prices, etc).
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