Some good news out of war-torn eastern DRC with rare birth of gorilla twins

The rare birth of gorilla twins has been announced by the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Community trackers discovered the birth of the two males on 3 January and reported the newborns to be "in healthy condition".

The Park is situated in the war-ravaged eastern DRC, where a team of over 700 trackers risk their lives to safeguard the wildlife of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, including the last of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas.

The twins were born to a 22-year-old gorilla named Mafuko, whose own mother was killed by "armed individuals", the Park says in a statement.

Virunga is home to around 600 of the world's estimated 1,000 mountain gorillas left in the wild, where the population is threatened by poaching and habitat loss amid the instability caused by the civil war.

On the Africa Business Report, Tribe Africa Advisory's Rutendo Hwindingwi takes note of the twin birth as some good news from a country that's often featured for the bad news around the ongoing conflict, or spoken about in terms of commodities.

"Mafuko's given birth to a set of twins which is quite a unique thing. It's a key event not only for the industry of parks in the DRC, but for this gorilla subspecies as well. They're in this 7,800 km park where poaching happens a lot."

Mountain gorilla trekking safaris to Virunga are among the most popular tourism activities in the DRC, benefiting not only the tourism industry but local communities.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Africa Business Focus (Mountain gorilla discussion at 5:39)