Wars
The newly created Gorongosa National Park enjoyed a brief golden era in the early 1960's as visitors from around the world discovered its treasures and the animals benefited from the ban on hunting in the park. Next came a generation of armed conflict, first the war for independence from Portugal, then a civil war that claimed more than a million lives.
Some of the civil war's fiercest fighting took place in and around Gorongosa National Park in the 1980's. The people from the mountains suffered terrible losses and hardships. Battle lines were blurred and constantly shifting. People were seen as combatants if caught by either side in enemy territory, so they lived under constant threat of death. Thousands were forced from their homes, imprisoned, or executed, especially by insurgents intent on destroying Mozambique's infrastructure and killing anyone who could rebuild it.
Regular outbreaks of cholera, diarrhea, and malaria, together with several devastating droughts and floods toward the end of the civil war only added to the suffering.
Read about Mozambique’s civil war. 
Read this story of the emergency recovery efforts in Gorongosa National Park after the war.