Favor

eyelaser - Tourists, who are vital to the local economy and who are generally recognized as being in everyone's self interest to protect, were targeted and robbed in a very busy area. This is unusual and though the event itself wouldn't necessarily stop me from going, it certainly bears watching to see what the response and resolution might be. That will tell a great deal more about what the relative risks are.

Rattling off a list of events elsewhere and comparing what happened to a shark attack, doesn't seem very useful or relevant to the situation.

santharamhari

If they are not caught by now, then they are probably long gone........

eyelaser

I apologize if this is an emotionally charged issue. But the facts are that tourists are targeted everywhere whether by pick pockets or muggers. One week after my honeymoon in Kenya in 1980 tourists at Governor's Camp were robbed, stripped naked and made to walk back to civilization...the more things change the more they stay the same. The point of the shark attack reference is that it is very uncommon but because of the shock value is newsworthy. Unless what went on in Tanzania becomes routine I doubt it will have any long term effect. People still go to see the pyramids and sphynx despite tourists being gunned down there not too long ago. Maybe more security was instituted but I bet not forever.
My point was not to trivialize the incident but to put it in context with global events.
We unfortunately live in a very dangerous time where the haves and have-nots co-mingle and sometimes not harmoniously. The separation between wealthy (relative or not so relative) tourists and locals will surely lead to these type of incidents. I am not sure what kind of response you would want to see from the government. Certainly having armed soldiers patrolling the bush would not play real well with tourists. I found it a bit creepy watching the Botswana Defense Teams driving through Moremi even if it was to monitor poaching.

Eric

atravelynn

I do like Eric's shark attack metaphor--both are sensational, unusual.

Aby, I missed the $100<b>k</b> as well and read it as only $100. My comments about always carrying well over $100 are true, but I've never carried anything near $100,000 on me! That is very strange.

Bill, your analysis of the facts add to the strangeness of all of this. Something seems askew, at least from the facts that have been presented.

matnikstym

maybe they were selling AK47's to the Somalis and got swindled. Don't AK47's come from Czeck with a Hong Kong broker?

skimmer

Something fishy ... like Bill said.

sandi

Email received day after the incident:

To all TATO Members,

Yesterday, 20th February, 2007 afternoon, at Malanja Hill in Ngorongoro Area a tourist vehicle with 5 tourists -CZECH REPUBLIC (4) and CHINA (1) was stopped in the midst of the hill and forced the vehicle to park off road in the bush. The bandits then ordered the tourists and the driver to get out of the vehicle and demanded them to surrender all the valuables in their possession these included Credit Cards, Cameras , Cell phones etc. The vehicle was parked in the bush as if the occupants were either having lunch or having a health stop.

However, the guide managed to crawl up to the road and stopped a passing
tourist vehicles whose driver helped him with a phone that enabled him to
communicate with NCAA management.

After NCAA management recieved this information, 5 vehicles with 25
policemen and NCAA rangers were dispatched and arrived at the scene
within 25 minutes. A quick search was done at the spot of the incident
and by 7.00pm some of the robbed tourists belongings, - Passports for all tourists and Credit Cards for 4 of them were recovered and handed over to
the victims the next day ( today).

Searching operation which is going on under the coordination of the
Regional Police Commander assures all the visitors that NCAA, Serengeti
National Park and surrounding areas are secure and intensive patrol is
going on. Any information in connection to this incident which the public will rely on should come from the ARUSHA REGIONAL POLICE COMMANDER.

Nyamera

It looks like Dennis is onto something! But, why were they carrying Swedish kronor?

santharamhari

left over change from their last trip to Sweden still in their wallet?

santharamhari

Eric,

I agre......i hv seen the Botswana defence teams even in some private concessions....

Favor

Everyone is looking for something unusual in the event to reassure themselves that they're inoculated from this sort of thing. It's the same as looking in your local paper for &quot;gang related&quot; or &quot;drug related&quot; when you read about a troubling event. This tag absolves you from worry about the same thing happening to you.

You can think of this a &quot;shark attack&quot; if you want to. In terms of its rarity you could make that argument - but in terms of understanding what actually brought those two groups of people together in the same place at the same time it says nothing. On the contrary the incident raises a lot of questions. How could a group of Somali's travel that far and into that busy an area of Tanzania and not be seen by a local? Where did they escape to? How were the passports and other items retrieved? Were they really Somali's?

I've traveled many places in the world at many times, calm and otherwise, and to me a place can only be the full measure of dangerous if I don't understand what's is happening there.

Coordinator

In my opinion $100,000 said they were carrying is a typing error from newspapers,doesn't sound logic,moving around with that money while packed 5 in a vehicle of a $ 140 per day camping safari.
Unconfirmed reports reaching me that 2 of the gunmen have been killed by rangers in a shootout and 3 of them have been arrested.

safarimama

I've just heard from Boni again,
He writes:
It is true that the tourist were robbed; the incident occurred at the Malanja section along the Ngorongoro Consevation Area and the Serengeti borderline. Malanja its not very far from the incent road to the crater approx. 5km from there all the way to about 15 km and the incident happened at the place known as Golini.

Did you know that the weather changes affected the normal calving time of the wildbeest this year? I was guiding a group of 14 people and we camped at Ndutu 9; their aim is to see the calving according to their calender that they have. But we saw not more than ten calves and I tried to explain what has happened last year but it was difficult for them to understand me. Then two days after that we drove to the crater and there we saw alot of babies. From there they understood better what I was telling them the other day. BONIFACE