A vulture, a prisoner of war in Yemen suspected of espionage

The sand-colored bird has landed in Taez, a town in southwestern Yemen. Vultures of their species can travel long distances in search of food and mild temperatures. Nelson is about two years old. In Bulgaria, the Wildlife Fund (FWFF) has placed a ring and equipped it with a satellite transmitter. In September 2018, he released him to find out where the pilgrimage was leading him.

Everything seems to indicate that he's lost. He found himself in the hands of Yemeni pro-government fighters from Taez City, besieged by Houthi rebels, who believed the shipper was a spy machine. This is how the vulture has become war prisoner.

When the story of this vulture began to circulate in the media, the FWFF sent Hisham to hut, a Yemeni from the capital, Sanaa, take the bird and explain to the fighters that it was n & # 39; He was not a spy.

But crossing the war region was complicated. "It took 12 days," said Hut. "The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry contacted the ambbadador of Yemen, who in turn contacted the local authorities (in Taez) and asked them to return the vulture to the organization," he said. he explains.

According to Hut, The bird left Bulgaria and flew over Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia before arriving in Yemen, where the FWFF lost track. He was reported missing until April 5, when the FWFF received hundreds of Yemeni messages informing him that the bird was captive in Taez.

Currently, the vulture is recovering his strength in Sana thanks to the care of Hut. "When we picked it up, it was in very bad shape" and had lost weight, he says. Hut believes that Nelson could recover in two monthswhen the wing that broke during the journey is healed "At first we thought it would take six months to heal, but now we estimate that two are enough."

According to, the misadventure of the bird was due to the fact that he did not find any food. "The vultures feed on the corpses of dead animals, but in the current war situation, there are none, it has forced down and prevented the continuation of the journey."

The war unleashed more than four years ago in Yemen has provoked the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, causing millions of undernourished and threatened by famine, according to the UN. The war intensified in March 2015 when a military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, intervened to support the president's government. Abd Rabbo Mansur Hadi.

Since then, at least 10,000 people – mostly civilians – have died and more than 60,000 have been injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Several NGOs believe that the number of victims is much higher.