Malian authorities will give French President Francois Hollande another camel after the one they gave him in thanks for helping repel Islamist rebels was killed and eaten by the family he left it with in Timbuktu, an official in Mali said.
“As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“The new camel will be sent to Paris. We are ashamed of what happened to the camel. It was a present that did not deserve this fate.”
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
Hollande was presented with the camel when he visited Mali in February several weeks after dispatching French troops to the former colony to help combat al Qaeda-linked fighters moving south from a base in the north of the country.
The president joked at the time about using the camel to get around Paris, which often suffers from traffic jams, but he chose in the end to leave it with a family in the town on the edge of the Sahara desert.
(Liberty Times)
馬利一名官員表示，馬利當局在他們為感謝法國協助擊退伊斯蘭叛軍，致贈法國總統法蘭索瓦‧歐蘭德的駱駝被歐蘭德委託照顧的廷巴克圖家庭宰殺吃掉後，決定再送歐蘭德另一頭駱駝。
這名未經授權向媒體發言、要求不要曝光的官員說：「我們一聽到這件事，便馬上以一頭更大、更漂亮的駱駝取而代之。」
「這頭新駱駝會被送到巴黎。（舊）駱駝發生的事令我們顏面無光。那是禮物，不該落得如此下場。」
歐蘭德是在二月份造訪馬利時收到這份駱駝餽禮，時值（法國當局）派遣法軍前往馬利這個前法國殖民地，協助對抗與「開打」組織有關、從馬利北部一處基地南進的戰士的數週後。
歐蘭德當時曾打趣說，他要騎這頭駱駝來避開巴黎的交通阻塞。但他最後選擇把駱駝留給位於撒哈拉沙漠邊緣的廷巴克圖鎮的一戶人家照料。
（自由時報／翻譯：張沛元）
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