Chimpanzees drifted into a brutal civil war in Africa

World the mightiest primates have once again succumbed to the primal threat of war.

Apart from humans, only one other animal species is capable of eye-popping cruelty towards its fellow species. Our cousin the chimpanzees. We share 99 percent of our genes with them.

Many animals fight over territories, but only humans and chimpanzees can turn their anger against their old friends.

A brutal civil war has broken out between chimpanzees in Africa, researchers report in the latest Science– in the scientific journal. The researchers talk specifically about civil war, because the conflict is of a rare quality.

For years in Uganda, a large chimpanzee herd of up to 200 individuals lived peacefully among themselves in Kibale Nature Park. These chimpanzees have been monitored since the 1990s.

Ten years ago, however, the group split in two. A “western” and a “central” herd were formed. The old comrades started killing each other.

The western group has already killed 24 chimpanzees of the middle herd – seven adults and 17 cubs. In addition, 14 chimpanzees are missing. They probably got killed too. Scientists fear that the middle herd will disappear completely before long.

The chimpanzee war is brutal. Western chimpanzees have formed “death squads”, which search for individual victims in groups and mutilate them for life.

Researchers don’t fully understand why chimpanzees fight. There is no shortage of food in the area, and chimpanzees do not have, for example, cultural or religious differences like us humans.

The root cause of the conflict may have been the death of a few influential individuals. Six old chimpanzees died of disease shortly before the fights started.

These individuals must have been important to the community and helped maintain warm relations. As the social glue has broken down, the monkeys have slowly become estranged from each other and have come to see each other as enemies.

Now another well-known chimpanzee “civil war” is underway. The previous one took place in the 1970s and was followed by a famous researcher Jane Goodall. The chimpanzee war shocked Goodall deeply. Before that, he said that he thought that chimpanzees are “like humans, but gentler”.