A rare sanctuary in Congo looks after baby bonobos away from poaching threat

LOLA YA BONOBO, Congo (AP) — Micheline Nzonzi cradled a small and sleepy bonobo, an orphan whose life she will try to save over the next three years or so.

The 1-year-old's chances are good, with motherly affection, milk from a bottle and frequent play with other babies.

“Without me, without us, these bonobos cannot survive,” said Nzonzi, who has been a bonobo foster mother for 24 years. “They survive thanks to human affection.”

This primate nursery on the forested outskirts of the Congolese capital of Kinshasa is the world’s only sanctuary for orphaned bonobos, usually rescued from poachers or found trapped in the homes of locals who raise them for their meat.

Although great apes like the endangered bonobos are legally protected from hunters, they are still targeted to satisfy demand for bushmeat in areas far beyond the Congo Basin, an expansive rain forest that is sometimes called Earth’s second lung. The bushmeat trade ranges from rodents to antelopes, but a totemic ape like the bonobo may fetch a higher price.

“The bonobos are in danger. We are educating people to not kill the bonobos,” said Arsène Madimba, an educator with the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary. “We can’t kill them, we can’t put them at home as pets, we can’t eat them. Because of poaching, we can find big trading of orphaned bonobos across the country.”

Bonobos raise their babies for four to five years. Their low reproductive cycle means they are vulnerable to environmental disturbances. To protect them and their habitat, Congolese authorities last year broached the idea of issuing “bonobo credits,” similar to carbon credits, to reward communities for preserving forests. The program is yet to take off.

“There is a cultural difference” between Congo and neighboring Uganda, where apes are not hunted for meat, said primatologist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder of the Uganda-based Conservation Through Public Health group. “In Congo, they believe that you can become as strong as (the primate eaten)."

There are dozens of grown bonobos at Lola ya Bonobo. Some have lived there since 2002, when this sanctuary opened under the sponsorship of a conservation nonprofit known by its French name of Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo.

The nursery also has 11 young bonobos, with the most recent arriving earlier this year. Each baby is paired with a foster mother who will look after it for years before it can be transferred to bonobo groups open to visitors.

On rare occasions, an animal at Lola ya Bonobo eventually returns to the wild, which can take years of preparation.

Bonobos share nearly 99% of their DNA with humans and, along with chimpanzees, are our closest living relatives.

In the 1980s, primatologists estimated about 100,000 bonobos were left in the wild. The number is now estimated at roughly 20,000, an astonishing decline. The bonobo is threatened primarily by the commercial bushmeat trade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The bonobo’s natural habitat is an area of dense equatorial forest south of the Congo River. Bonobos are rarely studied in the wild, and much of what is known about them emerged from studies in foreign zoos and by foreign researchers drawn to a fascinating creature.

The bonobo was first identified as a possibly separate species in 1929, when German anatomist Ernst Schwarz noticed a difference in the skull of a specimen believed to be a grown chimpanzee with an unusually small head. Schwarz’s rival, an American zoologist named Harold Coolidge, later provided detailed descriptions that made it possible in 1933 to classify the bonobo as a separate species.

The bonobo is relatively well-known among Americans, due in part to its reputation as one of the most intelligent, peaceful and empathetic animals. They may even have a capacity for imagination, according to a study published in 2025 by Johns Hopkins University.

Bonobos are led by females and distinguished by their apparent lack of sexual jealousy. When two groups meet, females may switch sides without provoking a fight, unlike chimpanzees and gorillas. They may initiate casual mating, which happens so frequently, so intensely, and with such variety of style that bonobos are described as the “hippie apes.”

In Kinshasa, the trade in primate meat has gone underground. Traders need permits to hunt antelopes and other species, but trading in “les macaques” is prohibited in part to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases such as Ebola.

“I used to sell monkeys before, but now we cannot sell monkeys, any type of monkeys,” said Charles Ntanga, a vendor at Masina market.

Ntanga wielded a flywhisk to swat flies that settled on the rancid carcass of a giant rodent before him, with a kilogram going for about $17. Guyva Mputu, the vendor next to him, was selling python, whose frozen flesh started to steam in the humid weather.

Baby bonobos captured by poachers are used to lure grown bonobos, which are shot when they come to investigate the noise, said Madimba of Lola ya Bonobo.

Orphaned bonobos build bonds with their caregivers, who often can identify each by name, said zookeeper Frank Lutete, whose role is to feed the animals. He paddled across the water to distribute papaya as the bonobos made a racket, coming down trees to collect his offerings.

Some bonobos thank him, he said, tapping their chests in a gesture of gratitude.

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Micheline Nzonzi cares for an infant bonobo at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

A bonobo cares for her baby at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

Bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary eat papaya in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

Caregivers at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary tend to orphan bonobos in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

Caregivers at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary tend to orphan bonobos in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Samy Ntumba Shambuyi)

FILE - A group of Bonobo stand around behind an electric fence at the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary outside of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo on April 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.

Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region and imperiled negotiations for a lasting ceasefire. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.

The global community has long considered the strait an international passageway, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. In recent days, Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through a route on the Omani side of the strait backed by a United Nations agency.

Iran insists that it alone must govern the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the claim during a state visit to Iraq on Sunday.

“Any interference in this matter, any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and increase the level of tension, just as over the past two nights we witnessed incidents in the Strait of Hormuz that led to an increase in tension and confrontation,” he said in Baghdad.

The United States and Iran are still debating the terms of an interim peace deal, including issues such as getting ships through the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, removing U.S. blockades and sanctions, and addressing the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Under the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month, the U.S. and Iran have 60 days to iron out the details. The strikes threaten to torpedo the deal before it can be finalized.

The Kuwaiti military said air defenses intercepted incoming Iranian drones and missiles Sunday morning, just after the U.S. strikes.

Kuwait, which hosts a major U.S. army base, said it had detected and intercepted two ballistic missiles and there were no reports of injuries or damage.

Bahrain's Interior Ministry said the Iranian strikes damaged a residential building near the international airport and no one was killed. The ministry released photos of an 8-story building, with the top floor completely destroyed, filled with rubble and its windows blown out.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, whose base there came under repeated attack during the war. The damaged building on Sunday was not near the fleet's headquarters, in downtown Manama.

Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing what it called “a dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systematic pattern of repeated aggression against the sovereignty of the kingdom, and the security of its citizens and residents.”

The strikes came after the US and Iran traded attacks over the weekend. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” on Sunday, following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the U.S.

In a social media post, Trump said the U.S. had “struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations, and coastal radar sites, for violating the Cease Fire Agreement, AGAIN!” He warned of a point where the U.S. may no longer be able to be reasonable “and will be forced to militarily complete the job.”

“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The incident follows a similar back-and-forth that occurred just days prior, when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off the coast of Oman on Thursday, and the U.S. military retaliated with strikes

The Guard claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying it targeted Al Asad Air Base in Kuwait.

“Let the enemy know that violating the ceasefire ... will lead to a complete halt of ongoing processes,” the Guard added.

The Guard, which controls Iran's ballistic missile arsenal, answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and is thought to be wielding even greater influence now in the Islamic Republic.

The U.S. military said that “Iran had a chance to honor the ceasefire agreement” but “elected not to” when its forces attacked the Kiku.

According to ship-tracking websites, the Kiku appeared to be attempting to use a route established near the coast of Oman, serving as an alternative to the route sanctioned by Iran that runs through its own waters, when it was attacked.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa share a word after their meeting, at Al-Sakhir Palace near Zallaq, Bahrain Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Eric Lee/Pool Photo via AP)