Friday, May 19, 2006
HARGESIA, Somalia (Reuters) — Marauding hyenas have mauled to death four people and wounded three in the latest attack by the animals roaming the Somali enclave of Somaliland, officials said on Friday.
So brazen have the predators become that local men are sleeping with guns to protect their families in Ainabo district, 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the Somaliland capital Hargesia.
“One of the last victims was a small child, who was sleeping on his mother’s lap,” Mohamed Nur Abdillahi, a village official, told Reuters by telephone. Attacks in the last few days have brought to 11 the number of people killed, with 40 wounded in the past nine months by hyenas, another official in the area said.
“Hyenas live in great numbers in this district. Their attacks on livestock are nothing new, but attacks on people — mostly women and children — have been increasing in the last few years,” Mohamed Omar said.
Although hyenas, common across Africa, are believed to be more scavenger, eating dead meat, than predator, only two types of hyenas can be described that way. The spotted hyena is a true predator. It was unclear which type is killing people in the Somalian region.
Residents of Eritrea, which like Somaliland lies in the Horn of Africa, also recently reported a wave of hyena attacks around the capital Asmara.
Locals have formed a seven-man committee to plot strategy for defending the district from the predators.
Armed men are now taking cattle, sheep and camels to graze, a task traditionally meant for women and children.
Omar said the committee would first determine the number of hyenas in the area before closing up their dens and killing them. “We want to force these hyenas to the open and fight them in every possible way,” he said.
A doctor at the Ainabo Hospital said medical staff were treating seven people with various injuries from recent hyena attacks, but said the hospital did not have enough drugs to handle the patients.
Somaliland is a self-declared independent region of Somalia.
Source: Reuters, May 19, 2006
