Up in Ethiopia, the planned opening of the Gambella area has been postponed until next year. Seems ethnic fighting in the area was more serious than we indicated in our report last month. Here is how Richard Elliott, agent for these hunts, described what happened in an e-mail dated March 10:
"Gambella was originally scheduled to open this past January, but we decided to wait until March 15 because of some ethnic strife in the area. Indeed, everything was looking good for a March opening. We even received an official go-ahead the first week of March to proceed with the safaris. Then, violence broke out again.
"Chances are our clients would have been perfectly safe, as the violence in Gambella is only between different ethnic groups. Trouble is, the game scouts up that way, as well as our company personnel, are all from the ethnic groups that are at loggerheads. It just wasn't safe to take them in there. Consequently, we have put the inaugural safaris off until February of next year...."
........(continued)
