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Hargesia(Reuters) – Hyenas have killed four people and wounded three others in raids
on villages in the Somali enclave of Somaliland.
So brazen are the
predators that men sleeping with guns to protect their families in the Ainabo
district, 300km from the Somaliland capital of Hargesia.
“One ofvictim
was a small child who was sleeping on his mother’s lap,” Mohamed Nur Abdillahi,
a village official, told Reuters by phone.
Attacks in the last few days
have brought to 11 the number of people killed; 40 have been bitten in the past
nine months.
Mohamed Omar added: “Hyenas live in great numbers in this
district. Attacks on livestock are nothing new but attacks on people – mostly
women and children – have been increasing in the past few years.”
Residents of Eritrea which, like Somaliland, lies in the
Horn of Africa, have reported a wave of hyena attacks near its capital,
Asmara.
Locals have formed a committee to plot a strategy to defending
the district. Armed men are now taking cattle, sheep and camels to graze, a task
traditionally handled by women and children.
Omar said the committee
would first determine the number of hyenas in the area. “We want to force them
into the open and fight them in every possible way,” he said.
Somaliland
is a self-declared independent region of Somalia.
SOURCE:Reuters, May 19, 2006
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