Tourism in Madagascar takes a beating - no visitors to watch the lemurs

Madagascar depends a lot on tourists to boost up its economy and the Lemurs' Park near Madagascar's capital is touted to be one of the city's top attractions, but it is not getting enough number of visitors. Right now, it is the high season and, only a handful of tourists are seen in the park to get a glimpse of the furry creatures unique to the tropical forests of this vast Indian Ocean Island as the ring-tailed lemurs scamper through nearby eucalyptus trees.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 3 August 2015.

A section of tour operators blame this to the mass cancellations that followed a month-long Air Madagascar strike kept all internal flights grounded. Tourists used to arrive in large numbers during 2008, but there was political unrest since 2009 and that has affected tourism.
Of course, the authorities want to reverse the trend. It is promoting its rainforests, reefs and weird and wonderful plants and animals and are aiming for 1 million tourists by 2020. This would be five times higher than last year and more than double the 2008 peak, when 380,000 people visited the former French colony.
They want to showcase Madagascar as a ‘honeymoon’ destination like Mauritius and Seychelles.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Imprisoning 126 Somali pirates have stopped hijacking for last 24 months

#somalipirates #hornofafrica #seychelles Putting 126 Somali pirates in prison have succeeded to stop hijacking in the Indian Ocean for the last 24 months and has made navigating the coast of East Africa safe for the sailors as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 13 February 2015. With Somali pirates behind bars, there is no fear to face any ordeal like that of Kent couple Paul and Rachel Chandler who were captured by Somali pirates. All thanks should go to the efforts of the British to put hijackers behind bars.
Prosecutors have successfully jailed 126 pirates and there have been no hijackings off the Horn of Africa in the last 24 months, new figures reveal.
Hijackings similar to the experience of the Chandlers and the hijacking of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama which inspired blockbuster films are now a thing of the past. The Somali pirates have been prosecuted on remote islands in the Indian Ocean. Many of them have been jailed. Initially they were jailed in a specially built facility in the Seychelles and later shifted to UN monitored facilities in Somaliland and Puntland, provinces of Somalia.
The pirates are being given a chance to get educated, learn English and encouraged to leave behind the old lives so that they can earn livelihood through other means and make a fresh start.