3’000 sheep die after live export
The animals died of hunger and thirst after 58'000 of them were forced to return to Sudan following a quarantine failure.
According to a Sudanese government minister, around 3,000 sheep that were shipped back from Saudi Arabia to Sudan died of hunger and thirst. Some drowned during the journey.
Saudi Arabia returned 58’000 sheep to Sudan after it was discovered that quarantine procedures in Sudan had been compromised and that some animals in the herd had not been vaccinated against diseases such as Rift Valley fever.
Sheep are brought from western Sudan to the country's eastern port and placed in quarantine before being exported to Saudi Arabia. There they are vaccinated against three diseases: HS (haemorrhagic septicaemia), PPR (peste des petits ruminants), and Rift Valley fever.
Sudan's Minister of Animal Resources, Dr. Adil Farah, said the quarantine had been breached and some animals had been replaced, according to theguardian.
«In some states we have problems with our quarantines, particularly in eastern Sudan in the states of Kassala and Gadarif«, he said. «The animal quarantine stations are open and some of the exporters are clearly fraudsters who may have gained access to the quarantine facilities after we vaccinated the animals. Some sheep were replaced by the fraudsters – that is the problem.»
While the sheep were still on board waiting to be returned to Sudan, thousands of the animals died after drinking salt water from the Red Sea.
«The losers in this process at the end of the day are the small producers in western Sudan, where most of the livestock come from«, said Farah.
Live animals are one of Sudan's most important export commodities, generating approximately 500 million US dollars (384 million pounds) in 2018 according to the International Trade Centre. Saudi Arabia purchases more than 70% of its livestock from Sudan.
At the end of last year, thousands of sheep in the country died under similar conditions – hunger and thirst – when Saudi Arabia blocked trade with Sudan after the country announced an outbreak of Rift Valley fever. The disease had spread among animals in eastern and western Sudan and – to a lesser extent – among humans.
Sudan plans to send the surviving sheep back to Saudi Arabia. However, the death of the animals had enormous economic consequences for exporters in Sudan, who are desperately waiting to resume trade.
Livestock exporter Taha Gasim from Omdurman, Sudan, said he had spent thousands of dollars on food, water, and vaccinations for the sheep while waiting for Saudi Arabia to let them go.
This news comes at a time when Sudan announced that it has lost 40% of its revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
