Getting Over The Hump

Eat more chickn!

The government of Mali will be sending Francois Hollande  a replacement camel after the first, given to him as a gift, was unexpectedly eaten.

The French president had left the creature with a family in Timbuktu for safekeeping, after it was presented to him by local residents.  But it was promptly slaughtered and used in a stew.

France sent troops to Mali to regain the north from a loose coalition of militant Islamist groups.  During the young camel's handover ceremony, President Hollande had joked about using the camel "it as much a I can as a means of transport" around the Parisian traffic jams.  French officials had originally planned to transport the animal to a zoo in France, but because of the complex logistics it was decided instead to entrust the beast to a local family.

The French defense minister informed the president of the camel's death during a recent cabinet meeting, according to reports.  "As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel," an unnamed Malian official said.  "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."