A gorilla photographed in 2019 posing for a relaxed selfie with rangers at an orphanage in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park has died.
The mountain gorilla, named Ndakasi, died after “a prolonged illness in which her condition rapidly deteriorated”, the park announced.
“She died in the loving arms of her caretaker and lifelong friend, Andre Bauma,” it said.
The gorilla was among a pair that posed for a relaxed selfie with rangers who rescued them as babies.
At the time, the park’s deputy director told BBC Newsday that the gorillas had learned to imitate their carers, who have looked after them since they were found.
The gorillas, he added, think of the rangers as their parents.
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In other news: Anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu turns 90
Events are being held in South Africa to mark the 90th birthday of the Nobel peace prize winner, Desmond Tutu.
He’s expected to attend a service at St George’s cathedral in Cape Town, where he served as the country’s first black archbishop from the 1980s.
The Dalai Lama and Graca Machel, the widow of the late president, Nelson Mandela, are among those due to take part in an online lecture in his honour.
Although he largely withdrew from public life more than a decade ago, Desmond Tutu is remembered for his leading role in denouncing white minority rule in apartheid-era South Africa.
More recently, he has spoken out against corruption and xenophobic violence.
In other news: UN boss warns starvation deaths in Tigray alarming
The UN Security Council has been told that increasingly alarming accounts of hunger-related deaths are emerging from the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said life-saving humanitarian efforts were being crippled.
He again appealed to the Ethiopian government to allow the unhindered movement of desperately needed supplies to the region, after nearly a year of conflict.
Mr Guterres described Ethiopia’s decision last week to expel seven UN officials as disturbing and unprecedented.
Ethiopia’s envoy said his government was under no legal obligation to explain its actions.
Source: BBC