Is Queen Elizabeth National Park Safe to Visit?

Is Queen Elizabeth National Park Safe to Visit? Queen Elizabeth national park is safe to visit and is heavily guarded like any other of the National Parks in Uganda. The park is famously known as the most visited national park on Uganda wildlife safaris. It hosts a variety of species with over 95 mammal species, 620 bird species, crater lakes, swamp, forests, vegetation and beautiful accommodation facilities that can make your Uganda safari awesome.

Queen Elizabeth National park is extremely safe despite the fact that there was an incident that took place on 2nd-April-2019 when the American tourists who had visited the park were kidnapped together with their driver. The kidnapping of Ms Kimberly Sue Endicott together with the driver named Jean-Paul Mirenge Remezo created a major shock to the public about the safety in Queen Elizabeth national park. The incident was shown on the major headline in the international media of kidnapped tourist in Queen Elizabeth national park, this incident took the heart of Ugandans most especially the Ugandan tourism board.

The incident happened on 2nd-April-2019 when the kidnapping of an American tourist by names of Kimberly Sue Endicott and his driver who were captured by 4 armed men during their game drive in the southern side of Queen Elizabeth national park known as Ishasha sector a famous habitant for the unique tree-climbing lions. The seize happened between 18 pm and 19 pm along their game drive tracks when the unknown four armed men carried off Kimberly and Mirenge out of their safari vehicle car on a gunpoint, with other people who were left in the car. Suddenly these 2 were taken by the kidnappers and left the others in the vehicle without keys. Good enough the other tourists who were left called for help from the camp which sent someone to rescue them from danger.

Immediately, when the Uganda government heard all this, at every moment they sent in the Uganda police department to sort out the incident from Queen Elizabeth National park. The first thing they did was to close all the park entry points and exit areas with the neighbouring border of Congo which was done by the skilful park officials. To note, the Uganda police and the military personnel together with other wildlife skilled officers worked in hand of searching for the kidnappers and the kidnapped too. The Uganda spokesperson known as Ms Namaye Polly went ahead to find out the strongly believed victims of the kidnaper within their search area and she continued believing that their efforts will lead to a successful recovery.

However, the kidnapped tourist and his driver who was known to be a Congolese national were announced rescued on Sunday after five days of being kidnapped but they were in good health and in safe hands of the police. Unfortunately, the 4 armed men that lead the kidnapping of the victims were already crossed over to Congo by the time the border was closed and they went missing like that. Despite the success of rescuing an American tourist and his driver, this brought back the joy of Ugandans and tourism board member because they were all worried about the incident that had occurred in the most visited national park in Uganda which impacts a lot on the economy.

The spokesman of the Uganda wildlife Authority who is in charge of all protected areas in Uganda, advises the tourists to always book the armed guard from the Uganda wild Offices before setting to park’s activities like the game drive in order to be safe and secure. If this an American tourist and his driver were escorted by the armed guard, we think this incident wouldn’t have happened.

Ideally, Queen Elizabeth national park is now safe, and you can plan your visit to the park with no cease and enjoy the incredible activities within, the spectacular view of beautiful scenery with crater lakes. Since it is located in south-western region it also allows you to visit other safety protected areas in western Uganda such as visiting the snow Rwenzori mountain, Semiliki national park, Amabere caves, Mgahinga gorilla national park and Bwindi impenetrable national park which are both homes of half of the population of endangered mountain gorillas.

Queen Elizabeth national park is safe and secure, the president of Uganda His excellent Yoweri Kaguta Museveni visited the park recently on a wildlife safari. To enjoy the wilderness on foot in his 70’s, and also to do a game drive, a boat cruise along the impressive kazinga channel and he also enjoyed the boat cruise without any armed escort because his work is to protect one from wild animals like the carnivore such as lions, leopard, elephants among others.

Rules to be followed on Uganda National parks in order to keep you safe and secure on Uganda Safari Tour. All the Uganda national parks are under the management of Uganda wildlife Authority with well-regulated rules to be followed.

The movement of outside on foot without an armed ranger escort is not allowed.
No carrying out game drives without an armed ranger on safari vehicle.
No moving around or away from lodge that sits in the park because you may be attacked by the wild animals.
No driving from 7:30pm until 6:30 am within the park.
Travellers should not sit on top of the vehicle during their game drive because it’s not safe.
To enjoy boat cruise we advise the tourists to always use vest.
All the activities to be done in the park, you must have at least a copy of passport in your day pack.

Safety and security are the best preservative rules provided in Uganda’s national park in order to make Ugandan wildlife safaris memorable in the pearl of Africa because no one would like to take tourists to an area that seems to be dangerous.

The tourists must bring back the hope to visit Queen Elizabeth national park because is now safer than how it was before. You can proceed with vacation plans to the park in all year round, they have put enforcements in the park to stop such incidents from happening.