Nelson, the vulture arrested for spying in a country at war – 25/04/2019

Nelson, a tawny vulture from Bulgaria, entered Yemen, a war-torn country, in search of food and finished in the hands of the fighters who imprisoned him for a moment under the suspicion of espionage.

The sand-colored bird has landed in Taez, a town in southwestern Yemen. Vultures of their species can fly long distances in search of food and mild temperatures.

Nelson is about two years old. It is one of 14 that France has donated to Bulgaria to replicate in a natural park called Kresna. In Bulgaria, the Wildlife and Wildlife Fund (FWFF) he put a ring on it and equipped it with a satellite transmitter. In September 2018, he released her to see where the pilgrimage had led him.

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Everything seems to indicate that he was lost. He found himself in the hands of fighters Yemeni pro-government of the city of Taez, besieged by Houthi rebels. They shot him down and took his GPS to investigate "The secret messages that he sent to the enemy". This is how the vulture became a prisoner of war.

When the story of this vulture began to circulate among the media, the FWFF sent Hisham to Hut, a Yemeni from the capital, Sanaa, to pick up the bird and explain to the fighters that he was not a spy. The governments of France and Bulgaria have asked for the animal.

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But crossing the war region was complicated. "It took 12 days," said Hut.

"The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Yemeni ambbadador, who in turn contacted the local authorities (in Taez) and he asked them to return the vulture to the organization, "he explained.

According to Hut, the bird left Bulgaria and he flew over Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia before reaching Yemen, where the FWFF lost track.

He was missing until April 5th. when the FWFF received hundreds of messages from Yemenis informing them that the bird was captive to Taez.

Currently, the vulture is recovering its strength in Sana thanks to Hut's care. "When we picked it up, it was in very bad shape" and had lost weight, he says.

Hut.Cree that Nelson was able to recover his freedom in two months, when he recovered and healed the wing that broke during the trip.. "At first we thought it would take six months to heal, but now we estimate that two are enough."

According to, the bird's misfortune was due to the fact that he could not find food.

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"The vultures feed on corpses of dead animals, but in the current war situation there is no. This forced him to go down and prevented the trip from continuing. "

The war unleashed more than four years ago in Yemen has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world with 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 government of President 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.

Now, Nelson is in the Yemeni capital (Sanaa) where he is cured and fattened to bring him back to your reserve in Bulgaria.

AFP Agency.

GML