Mali to send Francois Hollande 'bigger and better-looking' camel to replace one that was eaten
Francois Hollande is to be sent a new camel from grateful officials in Mali – after the first one they presented to him as a gift was killed and turned into a stew.
President François Hollande receiving the first camel in Timbuktu, Mali Photo: Julien Tack/ABACAPRESS.COM
By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi
2:32PM BST 10 Apr 2013
A family in Timbuktu was given the first camel to care for, but apparently decided that it would be better of providing them with a meal.
Now embarrassed officials in northern Mali have said that they will arrange for a new camel to be sent to Paris as a replacement for its dead predecessor.
"As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel," an official in northern Mali told Reuters.
"The new camel will be sent to Paris. We are ashamed of what happened to the camel. It was a present that did not deserve this fate."
There was no comment from the Elysee Palace over the saga. It is understood that officials said that transporting the animal to a French zoo, as was the original plan, would be too costly.
The French president was presented the first camel as a gift after sending in troops to purge Islamist fighters from towns across northern Mali.
At the time, he joked that he would take it home and use it to avoid Paris's traffic-clogged boulevards.
But logistics – and a claim that the first camel was stolen from a family whose house was shelled by French forces – meant that diplomats advised the animal should be left in the care of a local family.
Mr Hollande agreed, but was advised by his defence minister during a recent Cabinet meeting that intelligence sources in Timbuktu reported that the camel had been killed and cooked.
French troops this week launched their largest operation in Mali since pushing back al-Qaeda-linked rebels who had seized control of the Saharan country's north.
Up to 1,000 troops supported by helicopters and attack aircraft were pushing north from the region's main city of Gao, searching for the remnants of the jihadist forces.
Mr Hollande announced that he would begin withdrawing French troops after Operation Gustav, as the current mission is known, was complete.
An African force due to take over from the French is moving into position.
Mali's army is also being trained, including by British soldiers, to ensure that the militants are unable to regroup and launch a counter-attack.
