19 people poisoned from eating sick camel meat suffering from unknown disease in Southern Somalia

[Shiloh]

Source: https://hornobserver.com/articles/10...uthern-Somalia

19 people poisoned from eating sick camel meat suffering from unknown disease in Southern Somalia
Tuesday June 01, 2021 - 15:16:05 in Latest News by Super Admin

Baidoa, Somalia (Horn Observer) At least 19 people were poisoned this week in Rabdhuure district in Bakool region, some of them seriously ill after eating meat from camels sick with mysterious sickness, officials and activists said.

Rabdhuure is a small district located in Bakool region near the border with Ethiopia.

The poisoning follows after locals slaughtered their dying camels – sick with unknown disease - only to eat its meat before it dies, in what Somalis call it, "Xalaaleyn”. Officials said that those drank the soup from the sick camel meat were seriously affected than those who ate the meat.

Officials said that the disease, which is spreading rapidly among the camels has symptoms like pain, chills, diarrhea, fever and swelling around the neck and abdomen. Breastfeeding camels suffer breast infection, which leads breast to swell.

Interviewed by Horn Observer, Hassan Moalim Yusuf Black, former Southwest State MP, political activist from Bakool region called the situation dire and called for the federal government of Somalia, Southwest State of Somalia and concerned international organization to urgently investigate the situation of this unknown disease spreading among the camels for the last three weeks...

[Shiloh]

Source: https://radioergo.org/en/2021/06/15/...somali-region/


Pastoralists bereft as camels die of unknown disease in Somali region
By Radio Ergo -
June 15, 2021

(ERGO) – More than 4,000 camels have died of an undiagnosed disease in Ethiopia’s Somali region since May, bankrupting thousands of pastoralists.

Halimo Abdi, a resident of Sagag town in Nogob zone, lost the five camels in the first two weeks of May that her family depended on for their living...

...Bashir said they were shocked at the way their camels collapsed and died on the spot.

“When the disease hits, the camel makes a noise and falls to the ground. Pregnant ones abort prematurely as they are dying,” he said. “I have never seen 15 camels die at once in the Gu’ season. This is a natural calamity we haven’t ever heard of before.”

Local people stopped consuming meat from the diseased camels after several people fell sick.

“Earlier when the disease was new, some of the pastoralists were slaughtering the sickly camels before they died. But those who ate the meat fell sick. I myself was hospitalised for 10 days after eating the meat of a diseased camel,” Bashir told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.

Locals have burnt the carcasses of most of the camels that died of the disease.

Samples from the affected camels have been sent to the Ethiopian National Veterinary Laboratory in Addis Ababa.

Dr Abdifatah Ahmed, a veterinarian at the Somali Regional Veterinary Laboratory, was sent to the area to collect data on the outbreak. He warned the public not to consume camel meat or milk until the disease is identified...