Akagera National Park Rwanda

Akagera National Park is situated in the eastern part of Rwanda and alongside the border with the Republic of Tanzania, it is a Savanah park covering. Akagera national park was named after the River Akagera which flows along the Eastern side of Rwanda’s boundary with Tanzania. Still, river Akagera feeds Lake Ihema and other small lakes situated within and around Akagera National Park park such as Lake Muhindi, Shakani among others. The various water bodies coupled with several savannah grassland land plains, forested areas, and rolling hills have made Akagera national park habitat for various wild animals which have made the park famous for game drives in Rwanda.

Akagera National park was much affected by the Rwanda genocide. As people fled the war to the neighboring countries such as Burundi and Rwanda, the park was big and flourishing however when the situation established, the refuges or the nationals who had fled returned via the park, and as a result majority never had land, food, and even where today, so they resorted to poaching and doing all the illegal activities within the park and this led to a reduction in the total number of animals. Even the government had no enough

land where they would have housed all the numbers of refugees returning and they decided to allocated half of the park to the people to settle and carry out various activities. Some animals became extinct and the park was replaced now by domesticated animals. The government of Rwanda used the remaining half of the park to protect the remained wildlife animals.

After peace was restored in Rwanda, the government in 2010  collaborated with the African parks network with support from Howard Buffet Foundation and other organizations to reintroduce the once existed species in the park especially lions and rhinos that had become extinct and this was done by increasing the park surveillance mechanisms and security. This effort saw the park fully stocked with the Big five mammals of Africa which include buffaloes, leopard, elephants, lions, and rhinoceros) making Akagera a one-stop-center for those interested in an African Safari. Besides the big 5, Akagera National Park has several Savannah animals like the topi, hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, hyena, waterbuck, mongoose, eland, zebra, serval cats, duiker, impala, black-masked civet, and reedbuck, bush pigs, giraffe, side-stripped jackal, Klipspringer, Sitatunga Antelopes, and roan antelope.