The mountains of Africa’s Congo provide one of the world’s most amazing homes for wildlife.

More than 200 types of animals, 700 species of birds and 2,000 exotic plants live in the eastern part of the African nation known officially as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But one species causes more wonder — and worry — than all the others.

Nearly one-third of the world’s broad-back mountain gorillas live in Congo’s Virunga National Park, and they are in more danger than ever.

The mountain gorillas are caught in the crossfire of a violent war that has been going on for more than 10 years between government forces and competing groups of rebels.

Tutsi rebels have controlled the gorilla area of the park for more than a year and until recently would not let park rangers go in to check on and care for the gorillas.

An agreement to let the rangers back in this month was seen as a breakthrough in the conflict between the government and the rebels.

But in a war that has killed an estimated 5 million people in 10 years, no one is sure how long peace can last in the gorilla region.

Repeatedly in recent months, rockets and bombs have ripped through the area’s forests, which often are covered in mist that hides the peaks of volcanoes.

The explosions have caused damage to the gorilla habitat already damaged by illegal cutting of trees for lumber and for the fuel charcoal.

The fighting has been especially dangerous to the gorillas, who often don’t react and seek shelter as humans would when bombs start falling, according to wildlife officials.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is located in the middle of south-central Africa, just west of the nation of Rwanda and Lake Tanganyika.

The war in eastern Congo started more than 10 years ago when violence and the mass killings of genocide swept through Rwanda.

Millions of people fled from Rwanda into eastern Congo, including Hutu and Tutsi militia groups that already were at war with each other.

Since then, the armed groups have fought with each other and with Congo’s government for control of the area, which is rich in gold, diamonds, tin, wood and other natural resources.

Virunga is the oldest national park on the continent of Africa.

Like a other residents of eastern Congo, its rangers have been forced to leave their homes in the war-torn area.

Though an estimated 150 rangers have been killed, many remained loyal to the gorillas as long as they could, risking danger and even death until rebel soldiers took over the park headquarters last month.

As the rangers return to check on the park’s 200 mountain gorillas, they can only hope for the best. The gorilla area “has been swallowed up by this conflict,” park spokeswoman Samantha Newport told CNN News. “It’s the chaos of war and they are right in the middle of it.”