Somaliland
Somaliland arrests wildlife smugglers
December 31, 2011 · 24 Comments
Photograph: Somaliland’s endangered tortoises
BORAMA — Somaliland Police in the province of Haud apprehended two smugglers on Saturday after endangered animals were found in their possession.
Police told media in the town of Baligubadle that the two men were carrying several endangered live tortoises in their car. Officers also seized an empty cage designed to trap leopards. The two individuals were taken into custody and will appear before a District court while their car was impounded.
Similar anti-wildlife trafficking operations were carried out in Awdal province this week which led to several arrests. The local police said a number of people will face courts for the trafficking of wildlife, mainly tortoises, charges. Somaliland is home to different species of tortoises including spurred and leopard tortoises.
Somaliland authorities said wildlife smuggling was becoming a lucrative business in the region but were ready to counter the illegal trade. They said they plan to tackle the vast international trade in live, exotic, endangered animals and animal parts.
In September 2011 two three-month-old rare Berbera lions were rescued from a ship in Mogadishu port by Bancroft, an organisation with foreign contractors training African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital. The organisation cared for the animals for weeks until they were flown out to an animal sanctuary in South Africa. The two young cubs were smuggled from Somaliland via Berbera port and were said to be worth as high as $1,000 apiece for smugglers.
Globally wildlife smuggling is in the top five illicit trades, along with counterfeiting, human trafficking and the illegal markets for drugs and oil.
Somalilandpress
Email this story
Tags: endangered, lions, poaching, smugglers, turtles, wildlife
Readers Comments (24)
Somaliland
Somaliland Journalists Watchdog condemns the apprehension of two reporters
HARGEISA-Somaliland police apprehended the director of administration and finance of Ogaal independent newspaper after it published news story concerning the ONLF militia arrived in the ...
Press Release:London Conference
Having considered the U.K. sponsored London peace conference for Somalis- scheduled to take place on Feb 23rd- non state actors (NSAs) have undertaken successive consultative ...
Somaliland:Delegation led by President Siilaanyo leave for London Somali Conference
HARGEISA-Somaliland president Ahmed Mohamed Siilaanyo left the country on Saturday leading delegation to the London Somali summit where Somaliland was invited to participate the conference. ...
Somaliland: Former President Riyale opposes London Somali Conference
HARGEISA-Former Somaliland President and current chairman of opposition party United People’s Democratic Party (UDUB) Mr. Dahir Riyale Kahin returns to the country on Thursday after ...
Somaliland: ALNUUR Furniture Scoops Top Award
HARGEISA—The ALNUUR Furniture Company has been recognized as the leading private company in community service provision nationwide. SOYADO a local youth NGO has awarded ALNUUR ...
I wish to congratulate the Somaliland police for their brave action against these criminals. It might seem like boring tortoises but all animals have a life and deserve to live like us and have right to remain in their God given habitat.
They should not be placed in bags, confined cages, storage containers of any kind of place that will upset, irritate and might even lead to death.
Fighting them and rescuing every animals is the just thing to do.
If we dont save tortoises tomorrow they will take everything else including people.
well done and good to see our people saving animals when Somalia cant even save its people.
Funny how Sland has people even protecting animals while in Somalia they need foreign men protecting their sisters and wives for them.
Stop gloating about others misfortune thank Allah and pray for then. want what you would like for your brother and Allah may increase you fortune.
stop using allah as an excuse to not get any critisism
Its sad to read that people smugles wild animals from Somaliland.
I hope the police will have resources to protect the wild animals in Somaliland.
What happend to the lions that where stolen from Berbera?
Kayse, Somalis from Somalia are our people too and throwing dust in their faces unnecessarily speaks more about us than it does them. We can be happy about our progress in Somaliland without being mean to our brothers and sisters in Somalia. Try to be less angry Kayse as I sense a lot of anger in you in the numerous comments you make here.
Dudes no one is angry I'm just stating and I don't even hate them, I just find them disappointing, I mean they come to Spress yupping about nothing while foreigners feed their kids and mothers. Its shameful and rather upsetting at times, thats all kids.
As for the animals, I'm sure their (Southerners) were behind the incidents because they wanted to eat the tortoises since they dont have food…mohahahaha……..kidding, relax!
*they
Made,
You are too excited about Isaqism and you sound like you were convert from other tribes. Honestly I would like to ask you what was you tribe's name.
Correction:
Kayse,
What is your original tribe name?
@Abdi,
You write, "Somalis from Somalia are our people, too". Hmm! Since when, matey? In 1960 our grandfathers (and fathers) rather stupidly made this assumption. I thought we had learned that lesson the hard way and moved on.
We might be intelligible to each other, allegedly have got "similar" physical features, but these do NOT prove that we are the same people. In sum, throwing around phrases like 'we are the same people" a billion times is not going to make any sort of difference — to me, it is another one of those stupid cliché
no actually we dont have the same physical features as southern somalis.they have darker skin tone and widder noses and bigger libs.to say the lease ; these people have no connection to us what so ever so i don't know where the idea that we are brother came from frankly.
Thats a stereotype from a white skin-head, makes me feel sad that its coming from another black man. You have been brain-washed. Somalis are all the same but we differ in ideologies, politics and views on certain areas, those areas are enough to create a bridge between us but dont be racist.
Somalilanders and Somalis of Somalia will never get along, we are like Israel and Palestine, period and I accept this fact.
Just a reminder, the topic was about wildlife mmmm but then I forgot Somalis were part of the species. Continue my bad.
Kaboon (or should I say baboon), you’re an idiot. Let’s ignore the fact that you have obvious self hate issues as an African man first and foremost, and we’ll just laugh at your stupid suggestion that we somehow look different than southern Somalis. We are the same people ethnically, Somalilanders just know how to govern.
@Hawa,
You said, "we are the same people ethnically". Perhaps you expound on that. I hope you are not confusing two things here: race and ethnicity.
Ethnicity is about tradition, learned behavior and customs — basically it is about culture. In that case your assertion, "Somalilanders just know how to govern", means Somalilanders and Somalis are culturally different. Hence they belong to two different ethnic groups.
Actually we're all the human race. Ethnicity is not just about culture but genetic make up and language too. Guess which ones you share with southern Somalis? Yup you guessed it! Both of them! Don't worry I'm for Somaliland independence as much as the next Somalilander I just don't like emotionally based denial of our ethnic ties to other Somalis
OK! Emotions aside, I'm afraid I don't agree with you. Your genetic make does not define your ethnicity. For example, Irish, Welsh and English in England are of the same race, right. However, Irish, Welsh and English are two ethnic groups within the Caucasian race. In other words, S. "Somalis" and SL. "Somalis" might belong to the same race, but this does no mean they are ethnically the same people.
BTW, just out of curiosity, what is your definition of "Somaliness"?
That's okay, we can agree to disagree. I don't have a definition of "Somaliness", it's really not that complicated. If you speak the language and identify as a Somali, I suppose that's all there is to it for me.
Hi Xaawa,
> If you speak the language and identify as a Somali, I suppose that's all there is to it for me.
Cool!
You make two premises that are not necessarily mutually independent: (a) speaking the language (b) identifying yourself as a Somali.
Well! Self-evidently one can quite easily refute (a). As for (b), you need to define "Somaliness" first, otherwise it is pretty meaningless.
You see, it is not so easy as you might think.
Totally agree with Hargeisawi its good to be civil but building a nation requires people that think along the same lines and Somalilanders and Somalis just arnt the same.
There is wildlife in Somaliland?
OK, I can already hear the stampeding hooves declaring DJ is "oven" and consequently nothing can survive in that topography. Well, you are right, for the most part.
On a serious note, here is the definition of ethnic group or ethnicity. For simplicity I will just copy and paste it.
Quote: An ethnic group (or ethnicity) is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture (often including a shared religion) and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy.[1][2][3] Another definition is "…a highly biologically self-perpetuating group sharing an interest in a homeland connected with a specific geographical area, a common language and traditions, including food preferences, and a common religious faith".[4] The concept of ethnicity differs from the closely related term race in that "race" refers to grouping based mostly upon biological criteria, while "ethnicity" also encompasses additional cultural factors. Unquote.
Key words: Common language, Common religion, and common food. I call it "Loxox" they call it "canjera," One and the same food and people.
Hawa is right.
Please tell JAMA to wake up and approve my comments.You pro isaac site.
SLP
You do realize that I can move to a different computer and use different User ID and email address, right? You can't censor me 100%. Bwahahaha.