In mid-March 1995, poachers killed four mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near Ruhija, with spears. The gorillas killed were an adult female, a blackback male and two juveniles. The first carcass was found on 19 March, the others later. Some of them were partially mauled by dogs that probably had accompanied the poachers.

The gorillas belonged to a group of 18 animals, called the Kyaguliro group, that had been under habituation for some time for scientific research. Therefore, every group member was individually known. As two gorilla babies were missing after the incident, it is assumed that the poachers wanted to capture the babies for smuggling them. To do that, they had to kill the older animals who defended their young.

Reports on the discovery of the carnage are contradictory. On the one hand, the animals were reported to have died on 15 or 16 March. According to other sources, field assistants of the ITFC (Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation) sighted poachers with spears and dogs on 18 March and passed on this information, but the rangers did not show any concern because poachers were regularly in the area. (Already in November 1994, Jaap Schoorl, the technical advisor of CARE in Bwindi and the responsible person for anti-poaching measures, had shown us a map of the national park with multiple-use zones and areas of increased poaching; they overlapped nearly completely.)

Three suspects were arrested on March 24; five others were still at large. President Yoweri Museveni ordered that top criminal investigators should be sent to Kabale. The arrested persons are probably not the ones who had planned the crime. Employees of the national park may have been involved in leading the poachers to the gorilla group, which was not easy to locate.