330 sheep smuggled from Algeria to Morocco, Mauritania and Sahel countries

A total of 330 sheep and birds were smuggled in the first months of 2008 while 135 camels and goats were seized across borders last year, according to border guards on south-west of Algeria.

• The south-west borders are the favourite way to smuggle dozens of goats, cattle and camels herds to Morocco, Mauritania and African Sahel, according to the same source.
• Sheep breeders say they had to buy their animals food at high prices due to drought. They are afraid of possible losses if smuggling, drought and high prices continue in this way.
• While sheep breeders are suffering from an embarrassing situation, meat traders in Bechar province (south of Algiers), for example, did not see neither nor negative impact of developments recorded in the agricultural season of the current year. “The prices are still the same for all kinds of meat,” they say.
• More than 40 sheep were killed and all their food storages were lost in sudden rains that hit the town of Lekrar in Beiyedh (south of Algiers) Sunday.
• Floods also killed 46 sheep and left 17 others missing in Bechar (south of Algiers). A total of 8 workers were about to be killed as they were surrounded by water.
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