Government begins culling poultry

Following the confirmation of the first case of the deadly H5N1 virus in a two-year-old girl in Djibouti in early May, the government has ordered the mass culling of all poultry in the country. The destruction, which is being carried out by the army, began in the region of Damerjog, 30 km south of the capital, Djiboutiville, where the girl lived, and was expected to continue in other parts of the tiny Horn of Africa country. A government communiqué issued on Friday urged the population to cooperate in the exercise. The cull has been met with some resistance by locals, who are demanding immediate compensation for their birds. So far, fewer than 1,000 of an estimated 3,000 birds in the capital have been destroyed. Djibouti is the first sub-Saharan nation to confirm a human case of avian influenza.