Gold mining in a Democratic Republic of Congo national park is threatening the okapi, a stripy-legged relative of the giraffe, civil society groups warned on Tuesday.

They called for a halt to the "rapidly expanding" mining operation in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the northeast of the country.

The endangered okapi, also called the forest giraffe, is only found in this region of the DRC.

NGOs, lawyers and scientists urged the government to revoke a mining concession and protect the "unique forest ecosystem and the local communities that depend on it".

"If the DRC government acts now, this unique World Heritage Site can still be saved", they said in a statement from the Congolese Alert Network for the Environment and Human Rights (ACEDH) organisation.

"These miners are literally eating the reserve out of its wildlife by hunting these animals for food," said Gabriel Nenungo, a coordinator of geologists in Ituri province.

"There is almost no wildlife left around the mine itself, and wildlife numbers are massively reduced around mining towns. There have even been cases of armed actors trafficking okapi skins and elephant ivory in and around the mines."

The wildlife reserve is spread over nearly 14,000 square kilometres (5,400 square miles) and houses several endangered species.

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