Okapi Wildlife Reserve

The Okapi Wildlife Reserve (French: Réserve de faune à okapis) is a wildlife reserve in the Ituri Forest in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, near the borders with South Sudan and Uganda. At approximately 14,000 km2, it covers approximately one-fifth of the area of the forest. In 1996, the Okapi Wildlife Reserve was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to its large population of endangered okapis and its high overall biodiversity. As of March 2026, the reserve is occupied and seriously threatened by the presence of Islamist terrorists from the Allied Democratic Forces who in 2025 killed more than 1700 civilians in the wider region of northeast Congo.