Authorities in the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia, are compiling data on foreign helicopters said to be poaching and stealing wildlife from the area while at the same time scaring off the farm animals.
"We have been getting reports in the past few months of unidentified helicopters swooping in from the sea and attacking and taking wildlife," Abdiqani Yusuf Ade, Puntland's Environment Minister, told IRIN.
He said the authorities did not have a clear picture of “who was involved or from what countries”.
Ade said Puntland was calling on countries whose forces were stationed off the Somali coast as part of the anti-piracy efforts to stop the poaching if they were involved.
He said the authorities had asked residents in the coastal villages to take photographs of the helicopters. "We are trying to get visual evidence to show the world. If the information we are getting is correct, what is happening is illegal," he said. "These forces are here to fight piracy; they should not be poaching our natural resources."
Noise pollution
Abdiaziz Aw Yusuf, the district commissioner of Jariban, near the area where the helicopters are alleged to be poaching, told IRIN it had been going on for some time. More....