Mali offers French president an allegedly stolen camel

A Malian has alleged that the camel, given as a gift to French President François Hollande, was stolen from him and now he wants it back.

Bamako granted Hollande a token of gratitude for the French military getting rid of Islamist rebels in the northern part of the country.

It is still unknown if Hollande knew that the camel was allegedly stolen, but the “BFM TV” French news channel said on Tuesday that “it was decided to resend the camel back to his native country Mali because of the difficulty of surviving in France’s cold weather.”

The channel added that the camel will go back to Mali again, and will have a farmer, who lost his house in the French tank’s shelling, to take care of the desert animal.

The purported original owner of the camel, who is a refugee in the Ambra camp located on the border with Mauritania, has requested that his camel be returned, according to the Malian website, Al-Hadath Al-Azwadi, (h-azawad.com).

The man says that the camel was taken from him by force after the deterioration of the situation in his hometown.

The story got the attention of Malians and they sarcastically expressed their opinion on social networking sites.

One activist named “Said Touareg” threatened to file a lawsuit to get back the stolen camel and said: “Paris will witness unprecedented judicial activities regarding the stolen camel,” adding, “there are reports stating that the owner of the camel has filed a lawsuit in the Ambra camp.”

The activist Ali Mohammad wrote on Twitter, that “the camel that was given as a gift was stolen from his Arab Azwady owner who is now a refugee in Mauritania.”

“This is not a joke!” Mohammed added.

Ahmad Mohammad, another activist on Facebook, said that this issue must be raised on the international level, stressing that “the camel should return to its Azwady owner.”