Packs of hyenas have been attacking families and livestock in Seylac and Lughaya districts in Somaliland’s Awdal region, with reports from different sources confirming the deaths of three people and a number of injuries.
Ahmed Hussein Badmah, a member of the Lughaya council of elders, listed a 50-year old sheikh, a mentally ill man of 36, and an eight year old girl as those who had been killed by hyenas preying on Abdi-Geddi, Riigga ina Kalowle, and Ida Adeys villages.
Abdirashid Ibrahim Muse, manager of a local hospital in Abdi-Gedi village in Lughaya, told Radio Ergo that a hyena dragged off a one-year girl while he was asleep at night. The child’s parents found her remains later.
Abdirashid said the hospital is currently treating two women who had limbs mauled by hyenas. He is concerned that the bites may be infected or that the hyenas were carrying rabies. The hospital has only basic facilities and medicines. The nearest major health centres are 150 km away in Hargeisa or 170 km in Borama.
Yurub Ahmed, aged six, was attacked by hyenas on Monday 2 October hyenas as she was sleeping. She lost some fingers on her right hand, and had bites to her head and arms.
“We woke up to her cries and managed to grab her before the hyenas dragged her away to eat her,” said Yurub’s uncle, Idris Sayid Ali. Yurub is back home after spending 12 days in hospital.
Idris said people cannot walk around at night and children are kept in their houses because of the fear of hyena attacks.
The nomadic pastoralists in this area believe the prolonged drought in Somaliland has destroyed the hyenas’ normal food supply. They report the killing of at least 150 domestic animals including donkeys by the hyenas.
The weather is currently very hot and people usually sleep outside their houses at night, making them more vulnerable to attack. Local police have been deployed by the administration to try to fend off the hyenas.
