![Infanticides, disparitions inexpliquées... En Ouganda, la «guerre civile» entre deux clans de chimpanzés mise en lumière par les chercheurs [PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP]](/cdn-cgi/image/onerror=redirect,width=640,height=640,format=webp/https://storage.googleapis.com/uploads.mongoosehq.com/url/media/122878375/653c8795b770aa724d2d1bc31c3412a569668d78088cb9aebd68e510b92840bd)
Overview
- A peer-reviewed paper in Science draws on more than 30 years of observations at Ngogo in Uganda to formally document sustained violence within a single community.
- Researchers report the large group split into western and central factions by 2018 after rising tension from 2015, with 24 coordinated attacks by the western faction and at least seven adult males and 17 infants killed.
- The community, already known for lethal raids on neighbors that killed at least 21 individuals from 1998 to 2008, saw infanticides and disappearances become common from 2021.
- The authors outline possible drivers that could act together, including a community size near 200 animals, competition for food and mates, a 2015 shift in the top male, and a 2017 respiratory outbreak that killed 25 chimpanzees.
- Lead scientists urge caution with the term “civil war,” even as field teams report further attacks in 2025 and 2026 that show the split and the violence are ongoing.