Safety Information

Virunga National Park is located in a region that is often troubled by unrest. In the last three years, the southern sector of Virunga National Park (gorillas and volcano) has been considered safe for visitors with over a 100 tourists visiting these sites every month. The Rwenzori mountains are also open for tourists and can be reached from Beni in the North of the park.

The management of Virunga National Park is dedicated to ensure the safety and security of all its visitors. It does, however, emphasize the importance that all visitors be aware of current security issues at the time of their visit. Virunga National Park cannot take responsibility for any accidents or incidents. If any signs indicate a security issue, the Management of Virunga National Park can decide to (temporarily) close one of its destinations and all bookings to those destinations will be refunded.

Before organizing a trip to Virunga National Park we advise our visitors to inform themselves on the security situation, they can check www.virunga.org for the latest independent news feeds on this region, as well as detailed information on the parks activities outside tourism. We advise that our visitors check with their governments foreign affairs agencies on their travel advice to the region and to check whether their insurance covers travel in this region, if not we advise visitors to ensure that they acquire additional insurance to cover travel to Virunga National Park.

We strongly advise against the use of self arranged transport, please use our transport or the transport supplied by trusted tour operators. All visitors using our transportation are automatically escorted by our rangers. If you do decide to use your own transport please inform our tourism office (Virunga Foundation) so that one of our rangers can escort you to your destination within the park (free of charge).