National Geographic Magazine

Cheetahs
for Sale

The regal cat is coveted by traffickers who sell wild animals
to wealthy buyers. This is how one criminal network
has smuggled cubs out of Africa—and how Somaliland is fighting back.

BY RACHAEL BALE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICHOLE SOBECKI



At the entrance to a
popular restaurant in
Hargeysa, Somaliland’s
capital, a cheetah
sits on display near
a trash can and rusty
paint pail. Somaliland,
not recognized as an
independent nation
by most countries,
is striving to fight
the illegal wildlife
trade. Still, for many
Somalilanders who
are struggling to get
by, protecting wildlife
isn’t a priority.

W I L D L I F E WATC H

Do you
know these

animals?
The question from the prosecutor is about the
five cheetah cubs pressed together in a carrier, With an airline eye
and held up for two defendants to see from mask and a tissue in his
their barred cell at the front of the courtroom. ears to help him stay
The cubs’ birdlike chirps of distress echo off the sedated, Astur under-
concrete floor and walls. goes an intake exam
at one of the nonprofit
One of the two, Cabdiraxmaan Yusuf Mahdi, Cheetah Conservation
better known as Cabdi Xayawaan, glances at the Fund’s (CCF) rescue
cubs. “I’ve never seen them before,” he says with centers in Hargeysa.
a wave of his hand. Cubs smuggled or
intercepted from crim-
A pause, then the second man, Maxamed inal rings often get
Cali Guuleed, speaks: They look a little smaller, sick, typically because
maybe, but those are the cubs from my house. they’re subjected to
long, grueling jour-
The men are on trial in Hargeysa, the capi- neys and deprived of
tal of Somaliland, a self-declared autonomous proper nutrition.
republic in the Horn of Africa. They’re accused of Many don’t survive.
taking cheetah cubs from the wild at a time when
Somaliland is cracking down on the networks
that have made the region a hub for trafficking
of the iconic, and increasingly rare, cats.

This case began in October 2020 when police,
acting on a tip, launched an operation that led
to the discovery of 10 cubs in Guuleed’s home
and to his and Cabdi Xayawaan’s arrests. It
was the sixth interception of cheetahs in four
months in Somaliland.

64

Guuleed approaches the cell’s bars to address of his silver SUV. He gave Guuleed a few hun-
the judge. He says he’d been caring for the cubs as dred dollars to buy goat meat and milk for the
a favor to his new friend, Cabdi Xayawaan, whom animals, Guuleed says. He insists that he didn’t
he’d met a few months before. When Cabdi Xaya- know keeping the cubs was illegal.
waan had asked Guuleed to store some property
at his house temporarily, Guuleed had agreed. “I welcomed him. He was a friend,” Guuleed
says. “Cabdi Xayawaan dragged me into this. I
That “property” turned out to be the cheetahs. have 18 kids and four wives.” Guuleed pleads for
Cabdi Xayawaan pulled up at Guuleed’s house a second chance.
with the cubs in woven plastic sacks in the back
Cabdi Xayawaan, sitting on the bench behind

The National Geographic Society,
committed to illuminating and protecting
the wonder of our world, has funded Timothy
Spalla’s research on cheetah trafficking since
2019 and Explorer Nichole Sobecki’s current
work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE MCKENDRY



Five rescued cubs
are corralled in a tent
in front of a heater.
Just six weeks old,
they require feeding
every few hours. One
CCF veterinarian at
a time serves as the
primary caretaker for
very young cubs, even
sleeping next to them.
The organization
houses and cares for all
of Somaliland’s confis-
cated cheetahs—nearly
60 as of mid-2021.

Rescue
stories

RIGHT

F R E YA Before his
rescue, Freya had
been kept in a wood-
and-wire cage and
was skinny and dehy-
drated. Now healthy,
he loves climbing on
logs, sitting on high
platforms, and play-
ing with toys.

TOP LEFT

I D R I S When he was
brought to a CCF
rescue center with his
sister Elba, Idris was
skittish around peo-
ple. He would let Elba
investigate new situa-
tions first, staffers say,
but now he has grown
more confident.

MIDDLE LEFT

LINK AND

ZELDA These sib-
lings were among
10 cubs rescued last
October after the
high-profile arrest of
Cabdiraxmaan Yusuf
Mahdi, better known
as Cabdi Xayawaan,
on wildlife trafficking
charges. Named after
characters in Ninten-
do’s Legend of Zelda,
the pair are insepara-
ble—even when Link
annoys Zelda with
his roughhousing.

BOTTOM LEFT

SA N Called “Nose” in
Somali, San is another
of the cubs rescued
in Cabdi Xayawaan’s
case. She had a badly
injured nose and cried
at first, but since she’s
been housed with
Link and Zelda, she’s
settled down.

68 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C



Storm, Guhad, and Leo
(left to right) rest on a
wooden shelter in their
enclosure at a CCF res-
cue center. Trafficked
cheetahs typically are
taken from the wild as
babies; because they
never learned to hunt,
they can’t be returned
to the wild. Until
Somaliland’s rescued
cheetahs have a pro-
tected reserve where
they can live in natural
surroundings, they’ll
be confined here.

Guuleed, doesn’t react. He has three past commercial trade of cheetahs has been banned
cheetah-related convictions and a reputation since 1975. Even so, from 2010 through 2019,
as Somaliland’s top smuggler of the cats. His more than 3,600 live cheetahs were for sale
nickname, Cabdi Xayawaan (pronounced or sold illegally worldwide, with only about
AB-dee HI-wahn; in Somali, c is silent and x 10 percent intercepted by law enforcement, says
sounds like h), means “Cabdi Animal.” When Patricia Tricorache, a researcher with Colorado
he stands to give his side of things, he speaks State University who’s been tracking the cheetah
with relaxed indifference. trade for 15 years. Taking cheetahs from the wild
has been illegal in Somaliland since 1969.
Yes, I served time in prison for cheetah smug-
gling in the past, he says, but I’m no longer Habitat loss and retaliatory killings by herders
involved in the trade. The cubs belonged to Guu- when cats prey on their livestock are the biggest
leed. “There’s no clear evidence I was involved.” threats to the cheetah’s survival, compounded
by the illegal trade in cubs. Babies, often still
The judge doesn’t look convinced.

F E W E R T H A N 7, 0 0 0 A D U LT C H E E TA H S are left in Support Wildlife Watch, a reporting project that
the wild, according to recent estimates, most shines a light on wildlife exploitation, by donating
in southern and eastern Africa. International to the National Geographic Society at natgeo.org/joinus.

70 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

smuggled out of the Horn of Africa, and guns,
explosives, and ammunition are smuggled in.

nursing and dependent, are snatched from the THE PROSECUTOR, Cabdiraxmaan Maxamed
wild while their mothers are hunting or when Maxamud, springs to his feet, holding out
a lactating mother is tracked back to her den. Cabdi Xayawaan’s phone, which was confis-
On foot and by camel, car, and boat, traffickers cated after the arrests. He begins to play audio
move the cubs through the Horn of Africa and messages the defendant had recorded on his
across the narrow Gulf of Aden to Yemen, a jour- phone and sent to his contacts. One is of Cabdi
ney of 200 miles or more that can take weeks. Xayawaan three months earlier, telling an asso-
Cubs that survive are sold as pets in Saudi Ara- ciate in Ethiopia to find him cheetah cubs. In
bia, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Kuwait, another, he discusses a money transfer with a
and other Gulf countries. contact in Yemen. The prosecutor shows the
judge photos and videos of cheetah cubs on the
Somaliland is believed to be the center of phone—some local, some from Ethiopia—as
the cheetah trade because of its easy access to well as photos of weapons Cabdi Xayawaan had
the animals in Ethiopia and Kenya, its nearly requested from Yemen.
500-mile coastline, and its proximity to Yemen.
Trade of all kinds, legal and illegal, has flowed My old contacts keep sending me photos, ask-
across the Gulf of Aden for millennia. Today ing me to find cheetah buyers, Cabdi Xayawaan
cheetah cubs, gemstones, humans, and more are says, beginning an elaborate explanation. He
admits that he sometimes forwards those pho-
tos to the Yemeni—but not because he’s trying
to broker a deal, he insists. The Yemeni, Cabdi
Xayawaan explains, owes him $80,000 for fuel
but doesn’t have enough money to settle the
debt. If the Yemeni could get some cubs and
sell them, he’d have the money he owes me,
Cabdi Xayawaan says. “Whenever I ask for my
$80,000, [he] asks for more photos. [He] has
other buyers, so if he can sell more cubs, he
can get the $80,000.”

The prosecutor calls Cabdi Xayawaan a “habit-
ual offender,” telling the judge, “He’s a criminal
who has made the illegal wildlife trade part of
his career.”

In November, Guuleed and Cabdi Xayawaan
were found guilty. Guuleed, who had no crim-
inal record, was sentenced to a year in prison.
Cabdi Xayawaan got four years, a record sen-
tence for an environmental crime in Somali-
land. It was a milestone for Somaliland’s justice
system—one that law enforcement and political
leaders hoped would be enough to deter chee-
tah smuggling.

The 10 cubs now live in a rescue center in
Hargeysa run by the Cheetah Conservation Fund
(CCF), a nonprofit headquartered in Namibia
that began working with Somaliland in 2011,
when the government asked for help caring for
confiscated cheetahs. By mid-2021, CCF had
three facilities in Hargeysa holding nearly 60
cheetahs and one leopard. Because they were
taken from the wild so young, none of these

C H E E TA H S F O R S A L E 71

‘In the smuggling (Snapchat, where posts disappear after a certain
trade, if you period, and TikTok, which hosts mainly short
videos, are also used now, she says.)
have a drop of
mercy in your Instagram did not respond to requests for
body, this work comment.
isn’t for you,’
SOMALILAND declared independence from Soma-
one cheetah lia, its neighbor to the south, in 1991 amid a civil
broker says. war. Unlike Somalia, it’s a functioning, relatively
stable democracy. Still, there are notable chal-
animals are equipped to survive in the wild; they lenges. It has informal relations with several
must spend the rest of their lives in captivity. countries but officially is not recognized as a
nation by the international community—a key
T H E A P P E A L O F C H E E TA H S is no mystery. As cubs, goal of Somaliland’s government, now led by
they have huge round eyes, fuzzy little bodies, President Muuse Biixi Cabdi. Somaliland lacks
and Mohawk-like ridges of fur down their backs. infrastructure, has a per capita GDP of well below
As adults, they’re sleek, speedy, and regal, less a thousand dollars a year, and depends econom-
aggressive than lions or tigers, and they purr like ically on remittances from abroad. In addition,
overgrown house cats. increasingly frequent droughts wipe out entire
herds of livestock, the cornerstone of Somali lives.
Throughout history, cheetahs have been
status symbols. A painting in the tomb of Despite these obstacles, the Somaliland gov-
Rekhmire, an ancient Egyptian vizier, shows ernment has taken on the illegal cheetah trade
foreign visitors bringing tributes to the Pharaoh with more zeal than most countries have shown
Thutmose III, including a cheetah on a leash. A in dealing with any type of wildlife crime.
Renaissance fresco in a Florentine palace shows
a teenage Giuliano de’ Medici riding horseback “Although we are a young country, an emerg-
with a cheetah seated behind him. Jazz Age bur- ing country, still we are a country that [doesn’t]
lesque star and French Resistance agent Jose- want to see wildlife suffering and wildlife trade,”
phine Baker could be seen walking her cheetah, says Shukri Haji Ismail Mohamoud, the minister
Chiquita—an occasional participant in her stage of environment and rural development.
act—down the Champs-Élysées.
Her ministry is cracking down on cheetah
Today Instagram is the place to see and be smuggling, working with Somaliland’s coast
seen with a cheetah. Many public posts of pet guard, army, parliament, attorney general, and
cheetahs are from wealthy people in Persian Ministry of the Interior, which oversees domes-
Gulf states who use cheetahs as prestige props. tic security. It’s a fight to protect Somaliland’s
There are photos of cheetahs with Lamborghinis natural heritage, boost peace and stability, and
and Rolls-Royces, cheetahs alongside sparkling gain international recognition as an indepen-
swimming pools, and cheetahs posing with dent state governed by the rule of law.
sumptuously dressed owners.
Somaliland’s progress in developing its gov-
Instagram is also where many dealers ernmental institutions is occurring against the
post photos of cubs for sale, Tricorache says. backdrop of a clan system that long has been the
foundation of social organization, community
security, and dispute resolution. This some-
times brings clan elders, who retain influence
and respect, into conflict with civil authorities
working to modernize the justice system and
conservation policies.

Resolving disputes in particular has been the
domain of clan elders, and they generally resist
attempts to submit their kin to the formal legal
system. Elders often pressure officials and civil
servants to step aside and let xeer, or traditional
law, decide the outcome. When it comes to sus-
pected wildlife trafficking, clan interference and

72 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Trafficking KUWAIT BAHRAIN Persian Gulf Dubai IRAN
routes Ad Dammam Gulf of Oman
Potential cheetah
trafficking route QATAR Abu Dhabi

Riyadh UNITED ARAB Muscat

EMIRATES

Medina Al Quwayiyah
Jeddah
Somaliland’s 470-mile SAUDI As Sulayyil Trade corridors Hayma
coastline and porous ARABIA Qalat Bishah
border with Ethiopia Many cubs die on OMAN
provide traffickers with Mecca the journey to Yemen.
a direct connection Those that survive Salalah
between cheetah habitat Najran are sold as exotic pets, Al Ghaydah
and wealthy buyers in mostly in Saudi Arabia,
Persian Gulf states. Impov- the United Arab
erished Somaliland isn’t Emirates, and Kuwait.
officially recognized as a
Red Sea Abha
Jazan
YEMEN

country, further compli- ERITREA Sanaa Al Mukalla
cating efforts to fight Asmara Taizz Aden
the illegal trade.
Aden of
SUDAN

Protected DJIBOUTI G u l f Maydh Boosaaso
cheetah Djibouti
Cheetah range Shrinking habitat habitat Berbera SOMALILAND Qardho
Acinonyx jubatus Fewer than 7,000 adult Boorama
African cheetahs roam HORN Dire Dawa Burco
just 13 percent of their
historic range. Most Hargeysa Laascaanood

ARABIAN live outside protected Addis Garoowe
PENINSULA
areas, which makes Ababa Gaalkacyo

SOMALILAND MAP them vulnerable OF AFRICA
AREA to traffickers. ETHIOPIA

Cheetah Dhuusamarreeb

Gambela Shashemene range

AFRICA INDIAN

Historic OCEAN SOMALIA
cheetah
SOUTH KENYA
range SUDAN

SCALE VARIES IN THIS PERSPECTIVE. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HARGEYSA AND RIYADH IS 1,050 MILES.
CHRISTINA SHINTANI, NGM STAFF. SOURCES: PAUL EVANGELISTA, DARIN SCHULTE, PATRICIA TRICORACHE, AND

NICHOLAS E. YOUNG, NATURAL RESOURCE ECOLOGY LABORATORY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY; AFRICA
RANGE-WIDE CHEETAH CONSERVATION INITIATIVE; GREEN MARBLE; OPENSTREETMAP

corruption can prevent cases from entering the protector.” But several months earlier, he shot
formal legal system, says Erica Marsh, an expert one dead.
on the Horn of Africa, though this has started to
change since the passage of Somaliland’s 2015 Late one afternoon, he heard a commotion. As
Forestry and Wildlife Conservation Law. he ran toward his herd, he saw a cheetah eating
a goat. It was the goat that had been providing
Without diplomatic recognition, Somali- milk for his youngest son. “I felt so bitter I nearly
land can’t directly access international aid and cried. I had to take revenge,” he says. He rushed
development funding. This has left law enforce- for his gun, a rifle he inherited from his father.
ment lacking cars to track suspects, boats to The cheetah was still there when he returned. He
patrol seashores, and radios to communicate fired a single bullet and hit her in the side. She
with each other. It also makes it difficult for ran, but he knew she’d soon be dead.
the environment ministry to expand its reach
beyond Hargeysa: Few people in the remote, “I kissed the gun. I have succeeded,” Dugsiye
rural areas where the smuggling originates are says, recounting the day. For Somali pastoralists,
aware of wildlife protection laws. To pastoralists wealth is the size of their herd, and losing a goat
for whom cheetahs usually are nothing more is like losing cash. Some in that situation would
than a threat to livestock, selling cubs differs go looking for cheetah cubs—they know there’s a
little from selling goats. market for them, and selling baby cheetahs can
help offset the loss of livestock.
M A H D I FA A R A X D U G S I Y E is 38 years old. He has
a wife, seven children, 40 goats and sheep, But Dugsiye was satisfied with revenge.
and a camel. He’s now known in the area When he was young, his father owned 500 cat-
around Bown, where he lives, as the “cheetah tle, goats, and sheep, a herd of camels, and a
farm. If a cheetah killed one of his animals, he’d
brush it off, Dugsiye says. It was only one out

C H E E TA H S F O R S A L E 73

Captive cheetahs Pet cheetahs today are most likely to be found in wealthy Arab
through history households. But they’ve long been the playthings of high society
around the world, from ancient Egyptian pharaohs and Genghis
Khan to Italy’s Renaissance nobles, such as the Medicis.

LEFT

AKBAR THE GREAT

This 16th-century
ruler of Mughal India
hunted deer with chee-
tahs, once found across
the subcontinent. In
a painting from the
1590s, he’s capturing
wild cheetahs, trapped
in pits to be brought to
his palace and trained
for the hunt.

RIGHT, CLOCKWISE
FROM TOP LEFT

HAILE SELASSIE I

Ethiopia’s last emperor
stands with his pet
cheetahs at the Jubilee
Palace in 1962.

JOSEPHINE BAKER

The cabaret star poses
with her cheetah, Chi-
quita, in the 1930s. A
gift from a club owner,
Chiquita became part
of Baker’s act and later
traveled with her.

PHILLIDA THEOBALD

Four-year-old Phil-
lida sits in London’s
Hyde Park with Spot,
brought back from
Kenya by pilot Guy
Wilfred “Bill” Harben
before World War II.

RAYMON D C ORDI ER

Smoking a cigar in his
Parisian shop, Cordier
had a waiting list of
“40 jet-set wives” in
France standing by to
buy cubs, a newspaper
reported in 1969.

CHARLENE CHAP-

M A N The soprano
singer is shown with
pet cheetah Flossie in
her New York State
home in 1956.

74 “AKBAR ASSISTS IN CAPTURING A CHEETAH,” FROM THE AKBARNAMA, BY TULSI AND NARAYAN, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: VINTAGE IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; TRANSCENDENTAL GRAPHICS/GETTY IMAGES; HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/CORBIS VIA
GETTY IMAGES; JEAN-CLAUDE DEUTSCH, PARIS MATCH VIA GETTY IMAGES; BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

Instagram is wildlife law, especially in rural areas. Low lit-
where many eracy rates and nomadism make it difficult to
cheetah owners notify the pastoralists, the people most likely
post photos of to interact with wildlife, says Cabdilahi Xasan
their cats—and Warsame, the mayor of Xariirad, a town near
where many the Ethiopian border where people come to sell
dealers offer cheetah cubs. He says he believes that with edu-
cubs for sale. cation and sensitization about the importance
of cheetahs, communities “will become their
of several hundred. It was just nature’s way of protectors, not their harmers,” especially if clan
things, his father would say. elders can be persuaded to take the lead.

Today Dugsiye’s herd is a fraction of that, and Dugsiye was released without charges, after
the farm is gone. Drought comes often, and rain- getting a lecture about the law and how cheetahs
fall is erratic. There’s flash flooding when the deserve protection because they’re a vital part
rain does come, and storms—such as Tropical of Somaliland’s natural heritage. “I promised
Cyclone Sagar in 2018—can be deadly. That I’d never shoot another cheetah again,” he says,
storm killed at least 25 people in Somaliland and adding that he vowed to report anyone who does.
half the livestock in the region of Awdal.
His newfound dedication has been tested.
The land can’t support domestic or wild ani- Not long after his arrest, he lost two more of his
mals as it once did, and because drought has goats—one that was nursing and another that was
made good grazing and vegetation scarce, prey pregnant. But, he says, as long as he can feed his
animals such as antelope and warthogs have children, he’ll remain an advocate for cheetahs.
become less abundant. That forces cheetahs to
look for other sources of food—sometimes goats P OV E RT Y D R I V E S S O M E P E O P L E to kill or poach
and sheep that pastoralists have had to bring cheetahs, but greed drives top traffickers. “In
deeper into cheetah habitat to find good grazing. the smuggling trade, if you have a drop of mercy
in your body, this work isn’t for you,” says one
Officially, cheetahs disappeared from Somali- cheetah broker, a jumpy khatseller with blood-
land decades ago, but most herders say they see shot eyes. He’s describing Cabdi Xayawaan. He
them at least occasionally. Dugsiye spots the cats adds: “He’s a man who doesn’t have a soft heart.”
prowling the outskirts of Bown roughly once a
month, he says, sometimes more, and there’s at Sitting under a shady mango tree as baboons
least one attack on his animals every year. scamper down the dry riverbed behind him, the
broker explains how he acted as an intermedi-
The day after Dugsiye killed the cheetah, Cabdi- ary between herders, who poach the cubs just
nasir Hussein, director of wildlife at the environ- across the largely unmanned border in Ethiopia,
ment ministry, happened to be driving through and Cabdi Xayawaan, who smuggled them to
Bown and came upon a dead cheetah on the road- Somaliland’s coast and out of the region. “I was
side. A herder identified Dugsiye as the shooter, like the pipe,” he says, pointing to a concrete
and he was arrested. It was the first time Dugsiye water pipe a few feet away. Just the conveyor
learned it was anyone’s job to protect wildlife. of cubs, not the one collecting or selling them.

Few people in Somaliland are aware of its Cabdi Xayawaan is known among everyone
from government ministers and senior military
officers to town mayors, fishermen, and farmers.
“He’s the worst trader,” says Col. Yuusuf Iimaan
Diiriye, commander of the army garrison that
oversees the western Somaliland regions of Sahil
and Awdal. “He’s the man who is making the
cheetah extinct in this region.”

Cabdi Xayawaan often operated near the towns
of his childhood in Sahil, people in the area say.
He knows the routes where he’d be least likely
to run into patrols, the beaches more (and less)
likely to have coast guards, and the towns with

76 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Photo props For those
who buy pet
Cheetahs in Persian Gulf cheetahs, “the
countries are photographed novelty wears
as accessories to fancy cars or
fashionable alternatives to off quickly,
house cats. Owning a cheetah aside from the
often is illegal, but people with
public social media accounts picture you
and tens of thousands of get,” says
followers post photos of them
anyway. Despite the association veterinarian
with luxury, many pet cheetahs Hollis Stewart,
are stressed and may be who has cared
malnourished. Below, Instagram
handles are blurred to avoid for captive
promoting such accounts. wildlife

in Dubai.

Social media for sale. Con-
sites like Insta- tact in-box.”
gram also act as Cheetahs aren’t
a marketplace. easy to breed
The caption at in captivity;
left says, “Four- most pets were
month-old poached from
male cheetah the wild.

C H E E TA H S F O R S A L E 77



Somaliland Coast
Guardsman Cilmi
Xaamud Axmed (at
center) climbs aboard
a Yemeni boat to check
fishing licenses as part
of a routine patrol off
Lughaye. Yemen is just
hours away by boat,
making these waters
a busy trade route for
trafficking—of humans,
gems, weapons, and
wildlife. The coast
guard is the last chance
to intercept smuggled
cubs before they’re out
of Somaliland’s reach.

people he could pay to be lookouts. Law enforce- posted there have no vehicle to get them from
ment officers have linked him to more than 20 the station to locations along the beach used by
incidents of cheetah smuggling in Sahil alone smugglers. They have no radios and no satel-
since 2012. Even so, before the case last fall, only lite phones, and cell phone service can be weak,
three prior arrests had led to convictions. especially offshore. Their few small patrol ves-
sels are really nothing more than fishing boats.
“He’s a politician with a wide network,” says
a driver on the Sahil coast who says he runs into The coast guard officers and local leaders in
Cabdi Xayawaan at least twice a month. Several Ceel Shiikh say they’ve known for years that
times, he says, he has seen cheetah cubs—and Cabdi Xayawaan smuggled cheetahs by way of
even occasionally lion cubs—in Cabdi Xaya- the town’s beaches. He’s well-connected, district
waan’s car. The driver says Cabdi Xayawaan commissioner Maxamed Jamac Colaad says, but
often travels with young men, some of whom are so are those who aim to stop the smuggling.
armed and some of whom seem drunk—a taboo
in Islamic Somaliland, where alcohol is illegal. “The nomadic community are like the radio
and antennae,” he says. “We work with them to
“To him, nothing is haram,” Diiriye says, using get to know what the situation is.” And one day
the Arabic word for “forbidden.” four years ago, the situation was this: Cabdi Xaya-
waan was on his way to Ceel Shiikh in a red Toy-
Cabdi Xayawaan got his start more than a ota SUV with cheetah cubs, apparently planning
decade ago, working with another trafficker, to pass them to a boat just offshore that night.
according to Timothy Spalla, a National Geo-
graphic Society–funded investigator who with With no car, the coast guard mounted an oper-
his team has been researching the cheetah trade ation on foot. Officers knew from informants
in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Cabdi which route he’d be taking, so they lay in wait in
Xayawaan quickly established connections with the shrubs on both sides of the road. If he reached
Arab buyers and overtook his former employer. the beach, he’d carry the cubs across the sand and

Described as intelligent and secretive by an
army officer who once arrested him, Cabdi Xaya-
waan had several SIM cards for his cell phone
and a satellite phone and frequently changed
cars, Spalla says. He knows how to gain loyalty
and build his network, relying on charm and
incentives—money, mainly.

“When he finds an opportunity in you, he’ll
immediately take your name and number,”
according to the middleman, who says Cabdi
Xayawaan recruited him for his many connec-
tions with Somali nomads on the Ethiopian side
of the border. “That’s how he grows his network.”

It’s an extensive network. When law enforce-
ment increased pressure in western Somaliland,
Cabdi Xayawaan nimbly shifted his trade routes
to the east. He mainly trafficked cheetah cubs, but
he also smuggled an occasional lion or leopard
cub and brought weapons and khat into Somali-
land, according to eyewitnesses, associates, gov-
ernment officials, and law enforcement. He often
took cubs to the beach himself to hand them to
smugglers aboard boats bound for Yemen, say the
driver and others who have seen him.

T H E C OA ST G UA R D station in Ceel Shiikh, a small
town on the central coast, looks abandoned. A
building with peeling paint stands in a large yard
strewn with mechanical equipment. Officers

80 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

LEFT

On trial in Hargeysa
for cheetah trafficking,
Cabdi Xayawaan stands
behind the bars of the
courtroom cell as the
judge speaks to him.
Cabdi Xayawaan, who
has three past convic-
tions and a reputation
as Somaliland’s most
prolific cheetah
smuggler, pleaded
not guilty.

BELOW

The judge (at left)
looks at five of the 10
cheetahs confiscated
in Cabdi Xayawaan’s
case and brought
to court as evidence.
Cabdi Xayawaan
was found guilty last
November and sen-
tenced to four years
in prison in a case
that was widely seen
as a landmark.

C H E E TA H S F O R S A L E 81

Lobikito Leparselu
cares for his family’s
goats at dawn in north-
ern Kenya. Here, as
in Somaliland, losing
livestock to cheetahs
can be devastating.
“I probably lose more
than 20 a year out
of my hundred,” his
father, Leparselu Lem-
ongu, says. “That’s my
wealth, and I see it
slipping away.” Preda-
tion pushes some herd-
ers to capture and sell
cheetah cubs to smug-
glers, but buyers seek-
ing an exotic pet are
the ones perpetuating
the illegal trade.



The U.A.E. into the warm surf of the Red Sea to hand them to
bans private Yemeni men who’d waded to shore from the boat.
ownership of If the coast guardsmen couldn’t stop Cabdi Xaya-
‘dangerous’ waan before the handoff, they’d have little hope
animals, but of rescuing the cubs: The coast guard’s boats are
some cheetah no match for the ones Yemeni smugglers use.
owners take
advantage of When Cabdi Xayawaan’s car came bumping
over the dirt and thorny brush, says the coast
a loophole guard station’s deputy commander, the officers
that allows drew their guns, jumped out of the bushes, and
private zoos. blocked the path. Searching the car, they found
six cubs. Cabdi Xayawaan claimed innocence
but was arrested. The case later was dropped;
why is unclear.

Not every town in Somaliland is as under-
resourced as Ceel Shiikh. In Berbera, which is
home to a commercial port in development by
the Emirati company DP World, a large coast
guard presence has decreased cheetah smug-
gling significantly, says Col. Haaruun Saciid Cali,
the commander of the Berbera coast guard, the
largest sea command in Somaliland. “I can’t say
nothing gets out, but it’s not common.” When his
troops go on patrol, it’s in a 65-foot naval ship
with two smaller skiffs for security.

“Our coastline is long, porous, and hard to
police,” says Axmad Maxamad Xaaji Du’ale,
the governor of Sahil, and there aren’t enough
checkpoints on roads to the coast to stop illicit
trade. In Berbera, though, the coast guard and
police informant networks have helped improve
security in recent years, forcing smugglers to
find other exit points. The port is crucial to the
Somaliland economy and to gaining future for-
eign investment, so “we’re very, very serious
about security,” Du’ale says. “We are all seeking
the goal of gaining recognition of the country.”

The government also has commissioned an
army unit to fight trafficking. The 18th Battal-
ion, named after Somaliland’s independence
day, May 18, 1991, is based in the coastal town
of Lughaye, another place Cabdi Xayawaan had
used to move cheetah cubs out of Somaliland.
The unit is tasked with preventing the trafficking
of humans, wildlife, and, mainly, weapons.

One fisherman, who has been working along
the coast for 30 years, says he’s seen all kinds of
smuggling out of Lughaye: humans, fuel, gems,
cheetahs, leopards, lions, gazelles.

Not long ago, he says, when he was chasing a
fishing net that was blowing away, he ran into
three men with several cheetah cubs on the
beach. Nearby were two wooden boxes with air

84 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

holes and open padlocks. The pickup boat was “dangerous” animals such as cheetahs in 2016.
delayed, the fisherman says they told him, so Some people surrendered their cats, but five
they’d let the cubs out for fresh air. years later many Emiratis still own them, a
search of Instagram indicates. Some, it seems,
He says he first saw cheetah smuggling in use a loophole that exempts research centers,
Lughaye around 2005 and that it became a hot wildlife parks, and zoos—including private zoos,
spot, peaking around 2013. At the time, he saw such as those owned by the ultrawealthy—from
cubs smuggled out at least once a month, some- the ban. The U.A.E.’s environment ministry says
times once a week. The 2014 outbreak of war in it sets rigorous standards for zoo licenses and
Yemen and the Saudi-led blockade of its coast- works with local authorities to “devise a coor-
line, followed by the Somaliland government’s dinated, swift response to reports of illegal pos-
crackdown on cheetah smuggling, temporarily session.” Penalties include up to six months in
slowed the trade, he says. prison and a maximum fine of $136,000.

The fisherman recalls that he got to know In Kuwait, several cheetah owners declined
Cabdi Xayawaan when the latter’s car broke to talk with National Geographic on the record
down one day in 2014, and that the two have for fear of getting into trouble with the law, even
crossed paths frequently. “He was one of the first though they publicly share photos of their chee-
smugglers I met,” the fisherman says. “He’s an tahs with their thousands of Instagram followers.
open, sociable man who is often very generous.”
Regardless of what it looks like in those photos,
The day Cabdi Xayawaan was stuck in town, cheetahs have not been domesticated. Domestic
they talked about their work. “Your food is from animals—such as cats, dogs, sheep, and horses—
the sea, and mine is from the cubs,” the fisherman arise out of generations of selective breeding,
says Cabdi Xayawaan told him. “So don’t inter- for companionship, food, or work. But cheetahs
fere.” Then Cabdi Xayawaan gave him money. don’t reproduce easily in captivity, says Adrienne
Crosier, the biologist who manages the cheetah
I N T H E C O O L O F T H E C O N C R E T E -W A L L E D court in breeding program at the Smithsonian Conserva-
Hargeysa, the prosecutor repeatedly brings his tion Biology Institute, in Virginia. Inconsistent
argument back to the evidence on Cabdi Xaya- reproductive cycles and the fragility of cheetah
waan’s phone—especially the messages between cubs make breeding them more of an art than a
him and the Yemeni. On one day, bank records science, she says, adding that the majority of pet
cited by the prosecutor show, the Yemeni sent cheetahs “are coming out of the wild.”
Cabdi Xayawaan nearly $4,000. Not long after
that, he received photos and videos of cheetah C A B D I X AYA W A A N I S I N P R I S O N now, but it’s not
cubs. The prosecutor hits “play” on a video, and certain for how long. Last spring, months after
once again, cubs’ chirps echo through the room. the legal period to contest his conviction had
passed, his case was reopened, for reasons that
No one knows where those cubs are now— remain unclear. Also last spring, Guuleed, who
whether they were some of the 10 brought to paid a fine and served just part of his one-year
Guuleed’s house and later rescued, whether sentence, died at home in Hargeysa shortly
they were put on a boat to Yemen and now live after his release, according to the Ministry of
in a private menagerie at a villa, or whether they the Environment.
died where they were. Most cubs in the trade are
fed only goat milk and meat as a substitute for If Cabdi Xayawaan’s conviction is reversed,
nourishment from their mother, and it’s likely one of Somaliland’s biggest wins against the
many die of malnutrition and other illnesses illegal trade in cheetah cubs will end instead,
along the way. as so many wildlife crime cases around the world
do—quietly and with little consequence.
The routes smugglers use to move cheetahs
from Yemen throughout the Persian Gulf aren’t As of late June, at least 150 cheetahs have been
well known, but many cubs probably are driven listed for sale this year. j
across Yemen into Saudi Arabia, according to
Tricorache. From there, they’re distributed to Rachael Bale is the executive editor of National
buyers in-country or in Kuwait or the U.A.E. Geographic’s Animals desk and reports on wildlife
crime. Photographer Nichole Sobecki, a National
The laws on keeping wildlife as pets in these Geographic Explorer, focuses on humanity’s con-
countries can be hard to parse. The U.A.E., nection to the natural world.
for example, banned private ownership of

C H E E TA H S F O R S A L E 85

TRACKING

BY SARAH GIBBENS
P H OTO G R A P H S BY ARMANDO VEGA

THE MELT

High in the Andes, a National Geographic team installed
a weather station that could help central Chile cope with the

drought and warming that threaten its water supply.

87

AT A LITTLE OVER
19,000 FEET ABOVE
SEA LEVEL ON THE
CHILEAN MOUNTAIN
OF TUPUNGATO,

Baker Perry and his fellow climbers were clobbered in the
early morning hours by an unpredicted blizzard that pinned
them in their tents with punishing winds and swirling snow.
Perry, a climate scientist at North Carolina’s Appalachian
State University, was philosophical as he recalled it.

“It’s part of the beauty of the mountains that it is so chal-
lenging. That’s one reason there’s not many stations up in
some of these places,” Perry says. “We want to see it at its
stormiest and at its most challenging as well. That’s part of
the climate. We need to measure that.”

Perry is a co-leader of an international team that in Feb-
ruary braved a global pandemic and a 15-day trek and climb
through dense snow to install a weather station just below
the summit of Tupungato, a dormant volcano in the southern

88 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

FAR LEFT

Franco Buglio (at left),
mountain guide
Manuel Mira, Alejandra
Espinoza (crouching),
and Fernando Urbina
install a weather station
at over 21,000 feet,
near the summit of
Chile’s Tupungato vol-
cano. Buglio, Espinoza,
and Urbina are from
Chile’s water depart-
ment. Data the weather
station collects will
help clarify the impacts
of climate change on an
important water reser-
voir for central Chile.

LEFT

The top part of the
route that the expedi-
tion took up Tupungato
followed the skyline to
the left of the summit.
Snowpack and glacier
melt from the vol-
cano feed the Maipo
River—for now. Climate
change is reducing
central Chile’s rain and
snowfall, resulting in an
extended drought.

PREVIOUS PHOTO

Cinematographer
Brittany Mumma
(front) and photogra-
pher Armando Vega
make the final push up
Tupungato to install the
Southern Hemisphere’s
highest weather sta-
tion. It took 15 days to
make the trip up and
back, and more than a
year of planning.

DIRK COLLINS

89

90 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

CLOCKWISE FROM

TOP LEFT

Baker Perry, a climate
scientist and mountain-
eer, adjusts an existing
weather station at
14,600 feet on Tupun-
gatito Volcano—just
south of the larger
Tupungato, where the
expedition took place.
Water and rock samples
were also collected
at Tupungatito.

Espinoza, a geologist,
rests on a pile of gear
at about 19,000 feet. To
ascend Tupungato, the
team hiked over loose
volcanic rock, trekked
through deep snow,
and navigated steep
inclines, all while coping
with the low oxygen
of high altitudes.

Perry stops for a quick
rinse on his way to
the Penitentes camp
at about 14,100 feet.
Changes in the ecosys-
tem and climate can
be abrupt for climb-
ers. The landscape, full
of small shrubs and
bushes, quickly trans-
forms to high peaks,
glaciers, and snow.

Expedition doctor
Ignacio Navarrete
administers a COVID-19
test to cinematogra-
pher Dirk Collins. Team
members received at
least four tests during
the trip, which began
in February, when
COVID-19 vaccines
were limited and many
parts of the world were
seeing spikes in cases.

T R A C K I N G T H E M E LT 91

Watching the water

Tupungato, the sixth tallest mountain in Chile, rises in SOUTHARG.
one of South America’s most vulnerable water towers. AMERICA
Last February a National Geographic expedition placed the
Southern and Western Hemispheres’ highest weather station CHILE
here. It will help scientists better measure and predict Santiago
precipitation as climate change exposes the region to more
drought and threatens the water supply for millions.

21,342 ft Tupungato Tupungatito M E LT D O W N
6,505 m Volcano The approximately 1,000
19,029 ft 21,555 ft 19,465 ft glaciers that dot the peaks of
6,570 m the upper Maipo River Basin
have lost 20 percent of their
5,933 m Cerro San Nevado volume since 1955. Central
Juan de los Chile has experienced historic
Cerro 17,060 ft Piuquenes drought for over a decade.
Sierra Bella
Cerro Tupungatito 18,307 ft ARGENTINA
las 5,580 m
Polleras Penitentes Glacier CHILE

Vega de los 14,600 ft
Flojos 4,450 m

Colorado Azufr Museoe

Parraguirre Baños Azules Yes

ASCENT ROUTE El Yeso
Ma Reservoir
Estero de las Vacas Negra
o6,152 ftLake
d
1,875 m
Mapo
Valle El Alfalfal
Nevado

Cerro Los San José
San Ramón Maitenes de Maipo

Colora
o

cho Metropolitan CAPITAL CRISIS ipo
Nearly half of Chile’s population

Santiago lives in the Maipo River Basin,
the watershed that supplies

1,706 ft 6.7 million people in and around

520 m Santiago with 80 percent of their

water. Authorities are building

dams and taking other steps to

conserve this threatened resource.

SCALE VARIES IN THIS PERSPECTIVE. THE DISTANCE FROM CENTRAL SANTIAGO TO THE SUMMIT OF TUPUNGATO IS APPROXIMATELY 52 MILES (84 KM).
MARTIN GAMACHE, NGM STAFF; ERIC KNIGHT. SOURCES: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY; JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION AGENCY

Andes. Positioned where Chile meets Argentina, “Then came 2014,” which was also dry, “and
the weather station is the highest in the Southern that was suspicious,” says René Garreaud, a cli-
and Western Hemispheres and will help scien- matologist at the University of Chile, who was
tists understand how rapidly the region’s climate not involved with the expedition.
is changing. The expedition was organized by
the National Geographic Society and supported By 2015, Garreaud and his Chilean colleagues
by Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative. had determined the region was in what they
dubbed a megadrought. It has endured for more
With the temperature, wind speed, and snow than a decade. On average, since the drought
depth data the station will gather, scientists began in 2010, a third less rain than usual has
hope to be able to better understand how cen- fallen each year. In 2019, the driest year since the
tral Chile and the country’s capital, Santiago, drought’s onset, there was less than a quarter of
will fare as climate change exposes the region the normal rainfall.
to more drought—like the historic one it’s in
now—and shrinks the mountain water towers— Some natural variability influences rainfall
glaciers and snowpack that act as stores of water. totals over a decade, Garreaud says, but there’s
no doubt that climate change is contributing
“The stakes are really high now,” says expe- to the megadrought. In general, it’s expected to
dition member Tom Matthews, a climate scien- contribute to dry regions becoming drier and wet
tist at Loughborough University in the United regions becoming wetter, and although Chile has
Kingdom. “There are millions of people living experienced drought periods before, none have
downstream of these water towers. They are part been this bad or lasted so long. Warming global
of this system we know very little about in terms temperatures have changed the weather patterns
of how it may respond as the climate warms.” that once brought precipitation, and models sug-
gest those patterns are likely to persist.
Tupungato is Chile’s sixth highest peak and
the tallest mountain in the Maipo River Basin, That’s bad news for central Chile, which relies
the watershed that supplies the 6.7 million peo- on the mountain water towers in the Maipo River
ple living in and around Santiago. With better Basin for freshwater. According to a paper pub-
data on how much precipitation is falling on lished in the journal Nature in 2019, water towers
mountaintops like Tupungato, government around the world, from the Andes to the Hima-
officials will know how much water they have laya, are imperiled by climate change.
to allocate in a given year.
Two years ago, Perry and Matthews installed
“Since 1982, I’ve been studying glaciers. a weather station on Mount Everest, making
Within my lifetime we’ve seen tremendous it the world’s highest. The Chile trek was the
changes in glaciers and snow cover,” says expe- latest National Geographic Society expedition
dition co-leader Gino Casassa, the head of the to explore and research climate and environ-
Chilean government’s glacier unit. mental changes in some of Earth’s most fragile
environments.
In a dry year, Casassa says, two-thirds of the
water feeding the Maipo River at the end of the IT TOOK THE TEAM ABOUT 10 DAYS TO SUMMIT
summer comes from glaciers that are shrinking.
Tupungato, at more than 21,000 feet, and five
Central Chile is a Mediterranean eco-region, days to descend. In the months before the trip,
climatically similar to places such as California. It team members trained extensively. Perry spent
lies south of the Atacama Desert, the driest non- hours climbing steep Appalachian trails in
polar place on Earth, and is wedged between the North Carolina with a heavy backpack. South-
Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. east of Santiago, Casassa climbed the hills above
his home.
Chileans are used to dry years periodically;
2010 was one such year. But in 2011, and then
in 2012 and 2013, there was still little rainfall.

The National Geographic Society,
committed to illuminating and protecting
the wonder of our world, funded Explorers
Baker Perry, Gino Casassa, and Armando
Vega’s expedition to study one of the most
vulnerable water towers in South America.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE MCKENDRY

T R A C K I N G T H E M E LT 93

Team members began their trip at 6,152 feet has locked in its mountains and when it might
in an ecosystem with shrubs and bushes dot- reach critically low levels are complex predic-
ting the landscape. That scene quickly changed tions, Matthews says. In the short term, the heat
as they climbed over the next few days. It was that accelerates snow and ice melt leads to more
a challenge. water, which can cause floods. But as melting
speeds up, the glaciers eventually “get so small
The team consisted of Perry, Casassa and his that even though they’re melting quite quickly,
colleagues at the Chilean water ministry, moun- there’s less to melt,” and so there’s less runoff,
tain guides, and muleteers, who move pack he says.
mules and horses up mountains.
Scientists refer to that transition point as
“The horses had gone a couple days before us “peak water,” when the short-term rush of water
to try to make sure the trail was open, and the turns into a longer-term shortage.
snow was so deep that the horses were up to their
necks,” Perry says. Four riders on horseback plus Only two other high-altitude weather stations
mules carrying cargo advanced ahead of the team. are located in the Maipo River Basin, and Casassa
Not only was the climb steep, but temperatures hopes the new station will become one of many
had warmed just enough that instead of being he and his colleagues install throughout Chile.
able to walk on the snow, the climbers fell through
it. “At one point I took a step, and the next thing I As the United States and other countries,
knew I was up to my waist,” says Perry.

The weather station the team carried up
Tupungato is a 120-pound, six-foot-tall, collaps-
ible tripod made of aluminum. It is light enough
to carry in bits and pieces in multiple backpacks
but should be strong enough to withstand some
of the world’s strongest winds. As the team strug-
gled through the snow, Perry says, it became
clear the horses would not be able to climb as
high as the team had hoped. Casassa called in a
helicopter to ferry the station the rest of the way
up the mountain.

Securing the instrument near the summit
required bolting the weather station’s tripod
to rock and staking it with guy wires to keep it
stable. The station is powered by solar-charged
batteries and has an antenna for satellite com-
munication. It already has clocked wind speeds
of over 116 miles an hour, Perry says.

The scientists also installed temperature sen-
sors three feet deep in the permafrost near the
summit to track temperature changes in the
frozen soil. The station will measure radiation,
snow depth, and albedo, or reflectivity. Albedo is
important because as less snow falls and the ice
melts, it exposes lower albedo snow and eventu-
ally dark rock, raising surrounding surface tem-
peratures and potentially accelerating the melt.

“As the climate warms, glaciers will retreat
quite quickly,” Matthews says. “How quickly?
We don’t know. Most observations have been
made on the mountain at quite low elevations,
so we lack information about what’s going on in
the upper third.”

Determining how much freshwater Chile

94 N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Marcelino Ortega
Martínez (front) and
Fernando Ortega
Ortega are muleteers—
people experienced
in moving equipment
on mules—who served
an essential role on
the expedition. Here
they ride horses next
to mules loaded with
equipment headed
for the Baños Azules
camp at 8,200 feet.
Behind them is Bárbara
Donoso, chef for the
mountain guide team,
followed by several
guides. In the back-
ground is the snowy
peak of Tupungato.

including Chile, commit to reducing the emis- Local water utility companies and munic-
sions that fuel climate change, central Chile none- ipalities are using tactics such as damming a
theless must prepare for worst-case scenarios. tributary of the Maipo River to store water and
trucking in drinking water for those whose wells
Garreaud hesitates to say Santiago might hit a have run dry.
“day zero” for running out of water, as residents
of Cape Town, South Africa, feared might happen Models by Vicuña and his colleagues found that
there in 2018. He’s optimistic that the region can the drought should continue into mid-century
adapt, using water more efficiently and cutting and reliable drinking water for Santiago will come
down on consumption. at the expense of supplying water to farmers.
For now, Vicuña says, the glaciers are receding,
Northwest of Santiago, a private company but “they are still a very reliable supply of water
is building the first general-use desalination every year, especially during the drought.” If the
plant that could provide water for drinking, glaciers do eventually disappear, as is expected,
agriculture, and mining. It’s one of many tools that reserve of water will go with them. j
aimed at ensuring reliable freshwater for cen-
tral Chile, says Sebastián Vicuña, a civil engineer Sarah Gibbens is a staff writer for National
at Chile’s Catholic University who researches Geographic. Photographer Armando Vega
how the country can adapt to climate change. covers cultural and environmental topics.

T R A C K I N G T H E M E LT 95

20 YEARS AFTER 9/11

AFGHANISTAN’S

96

LEFT

Sumbul Rhea, 17, a stu-
dent at Afghanistan’s
National Institute of

Music, is from a remote
village in Nuristan. Her

father was kidnapped
and ransomed three
times by the Taliban,

she says, for letting his
daughters study music.

RIGHT

Samiullah, 16, a Taliban
recruit accused of
planting a bomb
targeting Afghan

troops, is in a juvenile
rehabilitation center

in Faizabad. His father,
who commands an
anti-Taliban militia,

refused to sign papers
for his son’s release.

DANGEROUS DIVIDE

After U.S. troops exit, which
Afghanistan will prevail—one that

defends FREEDOMS gained
since 2001 or one that reverts to
OPPRESSION by the Taliban?

BY JASON MOTLAGH
P H OTO G RA P H S BY KI ANA HAYERI

Kote Sangi bazaar
in western Kabul
hums with early morn-
ing activity in April,
during the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan.
Most of Afghanistan’s
39 million people
are Sunni Muslims.
Minority Shiites are
often targeted by
Sunni militants.



After four weeks at
remote frontline posi-
tions in Badakhshan
Province, off-duty
Afghan soldiers trek
five hours to reach
the provincial capital,
Faizabad. The Taliban
took the area in early
July, killing and captur-
ing many soldiers and
allied militiamen.



In the blue haze

of hookah

smoke that fills

Kandahar’s Cafe

Delight on a

weekend afternoon,

it’s easy

to forget there’s

a war outside. In a suburban develop-
ment on the outskirts
YO U N G M A L E P RO F E S S I O N A L S with well-groomed of Kandahar, Cafe
beards and mullet cuts slump in plush chairs Delight entertains
sipping espresso drinks beneath flat-screens businessmen, officials,
that pulse with racy Turkish and Indian music and boys with risqué
videos, the bare midriffs of women blurred by music videos and
channel censors. sports, often past mid-
night. Women aren’t
This is still Afghanistan, a conservative barred, but only a few
Islamic society. But the patrons belong to a more have come in the two
permissive, urbane generation that’s come of years since it opened.
age since the fall of the Taliban, with vague to Under the Taliban,
no memory of the oppressive, fundamentalist music and TV were
regime, born in this southern city, that banned banned and women
television, music, and cinema; forbade men couldn’t leave home
from trimming their beards; and forced women without a male relative.
to wear head-to-toe burkas.

102 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Café owner Ahmadullah Akbari returned from sidelined the Afghan government and paved the
two years in cosmopolitan Dubai in 2018 to start way for the withdrawal of American forces, the
his business in Ayno Maina, a sprawling mod- Taliban tightened their grip on rural areas and
ern development on the outskirts of Kandahar. are closing in on cities at breathtaking speed.
With eucalyptus-lined streets, luxury villas, and Behind the café counter, Akbari monitors
shopping plazas lit by nearly round-the-clock closed-circuit TV cameras he recently installed
electricity, the gated enclave offers an atmosphere to thwart “sticky bombs”—crude explosives
of suburban normalcy for middle- and upper- triggered by mobile phones—that are targeting
class Afghans, many on a government payroll. officials, activists, minorities, and journalists, as
“We have no worries here,” says Suleiman Aryan, well as random civilians, part of the extremists’
28, an English teacher who works and lives in the strategy to eliminate dissent and project fear
complex with his wife and two children. deep into urban centers.

But beyond the jagged mountains to the north, Twenty years have elapsed since the U.S.
a storm has gathered. Emboldened by a Febru- invaded Afghanistan to rout the al Qaeda terror-
ary 2020 agreement with the United States that ists behind the September 11 attacks and toppled

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 103

the Afghan Taliban regime that sheltered them. and Pakistani officials privately say they fear
Taliban leaders took refuge in neighboring Paki- the extremists could retake the nation within
stan, and when Washington’s attention swung six months to two years. More than three in four
to war in Iraq, they mounted a comeback. An Afghans today are under 25: too young to remem-
infusion of military and development funds to ber the Taliban’s reign of fear and, especially in
the post-Taliban government followed, mostly urban centers, too accustomed to freedoms to be
from the U.S., totaling more than 150,000 inter- willing to relinquish them. Some in rural areas
national troops and nearly seven billion dollars see the fundamentalists’ return as inevitable
in annual aid at the height in 2011. But the surge and preferable, but many Afghans shaped by the
failed to quash the Taliban, and the U.S. even- post-2001 reality are defiant, unwilling to revert
tually decided to end its longest modern war. to a reactionary and repressive past.

With the last U.S. forces set to withdraw before L E S S T H A N F I V E M I L E S outside Kandahar, the
September 11 of this year, Taliban militants Arghandab River has become a front line. On
contest or control at least 80 percent of local a clear morning in March, an Afghan Air Force
districts across the country’s 34 provinces. U.S.

104 N AT I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C

Officer Abdul Ghafoor, adds, flinching at the sound of artillery fire from
22, stands guard in a former U.S. base now used by the Afghan Army.
Panjwai district, a stra-
tegic spot on a road to In summer, the river valley that gives its name
the provincial capital to the surrounding district becomes a dense
of Kandahar, the birth- maze of lush fruit orchards, canals, and earthen
place of the Taliban walls that gave militants cover to ambush Amer-
that the militants are ican soldiers here a decade ago. Security later
fighting to reclaim. improved, allowing farmers to harvest the
Ghafoor dreamed of grapes and pomegranates for which the valley
studying medicine but is famous. But locals say the relative calm was
took a risky job with undone by rampant graft, tribal favoritism, and
the police for $165 predatory policing that alienated a population
a month. He says he bereft of basic services. Twenty-five years ago,
wasn’t paid for half a discontent with corrupt warlords helped enable
year and had to delay the Taliban’s rise to power. Today similar abuse
his wedding. From his is fueling the group’s resurgence.
lonely outpost, he
has seen the Taliban A few years ago, “Arghandab was the most
getting ever closer. secure district in the region,” laments Shah
Mohammad Ahmadi, a former district governor.
A-29 aircraft wheels and dive-bombs a mud- “The U.S. did what they should have done; there
brick target on the Taliban-held side, sending were many good projects here. Unfortunately,
a rumble through the valley. The militants some of our corrupted officials have betrayed our
respond with erratic rocket fire of the kind that country and fed only themselves. When people
has killed civilians and turned a nearby market are not heard by the government, they seek help
into a ghost town. from others such as the Taliban.”

“Rockets and shells are launched blindly every Haji Adam, a tribal elder on the Taliban-
day,” says Hayatullah, a farmer who like many controlled side of the river, says, “For 20 years the
Afghans uses just one name. He fled his village whole world came and money poured in, but how
months ago with only the clothes on his back, did it help us? If the water was in our control…if
and lives in one room with his wife and nine there was electricity, we would have products
children. Like thousands of displaced families instead of war. If the roads were paved, there
in the south, they await government aid that would not be so much destruction.” Instead,
hasn’t come. “The fighting has destroyed our “nothing significant has been built” in Kandahar
homes and crops, and we are not safe here,” he since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, he says.
The region’s only large-scale hospital, he notes,
was built by the Chinese in the 1970s.

These days, Mirwais Hospital, known as the
Chinese hospital, is packed with casualties. A
pair of police officers shot on patrol lie on gur-
neys, dead on arrival. In intensive care, three men
recover from a roadside bomb blast. Down the
hall, 16-year-old Lalai is in critical condition from
a stray bullet fired in a Taliban-ruled district six
hours’ drive away. Relatives brought him to Kan-
dahar after two failed surgeries at a local clinic.

“He’s an orphan,” whispers his uncle. “His par-
ents are gone, and his older brother was killed
three months ago.” After a month of care, Lalai
was getting worse. Ten days later, he died.

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S U R B A N - R U R A L D I V I D E has only
widened in the past 20 years, and ruling classes
ignore it at their peril. Since the late 19th century,

A F G H A N I S TA N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 105

Hafiza gazes out the
window of the small
home near Faizabad
where she took ref-
uge after the Taliban
seized her village in
2019. When one of her
four sons joined the
Taliban, Hafiza begged
his commander to
let him come home.
“You’ve given two sons
to the government and
one to [anti-Taliban]
militia,” she says he
replied. “This one will
be ours.”

A F G H A N I S T A N ’ S D A N G E R O U S D I V I D E 107

EMBATTLED U Z B E K I S TA N
AFGHANISTAN TA J I K I S TA N

The country is controlled by the central Intensity of conflict, Built-up area Termiz
government in Kabul, but 75 percent Jan. 2017–June 2021 Pashtun area
of Afghans live outside urban centers, Hazara area JOWZJAN Hairatan KUNDUZ Taluqa
far from the capital’s reach. Corruption, Low High Border crossing Andkhoy BALKH Kunduz TA K H A R
government ineffectiveness, lack of
infrastructure, and minimal services Density of poppy NATO base, Shibirghan Mazar-e A
have made it easier for the Taliban to cultivation in April 2021 Sharif
recruit in rural areas over the past two agricultural land, 2020 Sar-e
troubled decades. Pul T
None Low High
Pul-e Khumri
Maimanah Aibak
SAMANGAN
T U R K M E N I S TA N
S
I BAGHLAN
FA R YA B SAR-E The Taliban blew up two
PUL
Toraghundi sixth-century Buddhas PANJSHIR
in 2001, part of an effort Bazara
to rid the country of
BADGHIS
Qalah-ye Now N non-Islamic art. Charikar Mahmud-

Ring Road GHOR PA RWA N KAPISA
Buddhas of Bamyan BAGRAM
This 1,400-mile road connects Ghoriyan Herat A Fayroz Koh Bamyan
cities and provides rural areas B A M YA N Kabul M
with access to markets, hos-
pitals, and schools. Construc- Maidan KABUL
tion began in the 1950s with Shahr
help from Cold War rivals the H HAZARAJAT
Soviet Union and the United The central highlands are WA R DA K
States; subsequent decades of
conflict destroyed much of the home to the Hazara ethnic LOGAR
highway. Since 2002, the U.S. Pul-e Alam
has spent some three billion
dollars building Afghanistan’s H E R AT G group. They’re minority HAZARA
roads, but the Ring Road— F
also a key artery for the illegal A Shiite Muslims and have PA K T I YA
poppy trade—is once again in PASHTUN
disrepair from weather, lack RING ROAD been persecuted by the
of maintenance, and militants’ FA R A H
roadside bombs. Insecurity, Taliban and ISIS, Sunni Nili Ghazni Gardez
inefficiency, and corruption extremist groups. GHAZNI Sharan
limit Afghanistan’s ability to Khos
maintain roads, threatening Baghran DAYKUNDI KHO
the viability of the central District
government. D

URUZGAN RING
ROAD
Tarin Kot PA K T I K A

Farah

Gereshk Arghandab Qalat
Lashkar District Ayno ZABUL
Gah Kandahar Maina
IRAN
Zaranj Panjwai Spin Boldak TRIBAL TIES
OPIUM HARVEST NIMROZ District The Pashtun are the largest ethnic
Afghanistan’s opium poppy group in Afghanistan, but twice as
harvest is estimated to supply HELMAND many of them live in Pakistan as a
more than 80 percent of result of the Durand Line border,
the global heroin trade. The KANDAHAR drawn by the British in 1893. The
hardy crop grows in tough Taliban, who are largely Pashtun,
conditions and puts money REGISTAN DESERT regrouped in Pakistan after the
in the pockets of farmers, U.S. invasion and were aided by
Taliban leaders, and corrupt The Taliban have some Pakistani security forces.
government officials. held the remote
Baghran district in PA K I S TA
northern Helmand Quetta
Province since the
50 mi Durand Line U.S. invasion.
50 km

TA J I K I S TA N FIGHTING FOR CONTROL

BADAKHSHAN The Taliban arose out of a civil war in the 1990s, after Control of Taliban influence
the Soviets were driven out. The Islamic militant provincial capital in province
Faizabad group seized control of Kandahar in 1994 and the
central government in Kabul in 1996, ruling most of Taliban Control
D O R Afghanistan until the U.S. invaded in 2001. They’re
now retaking control of many areas, using rural foot- Under threat High
R I H holds to advance on cities as the U.S. withdraws. by Taliban
Moderate
n O R Government of
Afghanistan or Minimal
C Northern
Alliance None or
insignificant

A NR W A K H A NK U S Pre-9/11 Northern 2000 NATO troops
2000 (shown on map) Alliance ’01 in Afghanistan
U The Taliban control control
D most provinces and their U.S.
N capitals. The Northern Kabul
I Alliance controls 10 per- Other
H Parun PA K I S TA N cent of Afghanistan in the 2002
mountainous northeast. Afghan National
R ’03 Defense and
ak N URI STA N Post-U.S. Security Forces*
invasion
-e Raqi 2002 ’04
The U.S. ejects the
Asadabad Kabul’s population has Taliban from Kabul and ’05
LAGHMAN grown from 2.5 million in all provincial capitals.
2001 to 4.4 million today. Leaders flee to Pakistan. ’06
KUNAR Two years later a new
Mehtar constitution is adopted
and a government elected.
Lam

Jalalabad

Tora NANGARHAR Khyber Pass ’07
Bora Peshawar
A ’08
Islamabad 2009

st Where Afghans Flee Pre-U.S. ’10
’11
ST ine Other nations harbored 2.6 million regis- TROOP surge 2012 42,000
Durand L tered refugees from Afghanistan in 2020. 110,500
Globally, the country accounts for the 2009
third largest refugee population, after 337,500
Syria and Venezuela. Increasing violence A years-long Taliban
continues to drive people out of the resurgence gains ground
country. as the group seizes con-
trol of several districts
AFGHAN REFUGEES (2020) and threatens to overtake
many provincial capitals.

PASHTUN

Pakistan Iran ’13
1.44 million 780,000
Post-surge
Europe 2012 ’14 At the deploy-
338,000 Other After a two-year surge in ’15 ment’s height,
U.S. forces, NATO wrests ’16 NATO had more
49,000 control of most areas ’17 than 150,000
from the Taliban, pushing ’18 troops from
INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS 2020 them back to their rural ’19 50 nations,
strongholds. ’20 including the
Ongoing conflict has forced 2.89 million 2021 U.S., in Afghani-
Withdrawal stan, supported
millions of Afghans to by more than
2021 300,000
relocate within their country. (map data as of July 1, 2021) Afghan forces.
The Taliban regain large
AN 2000 areas after NATO turns *AFGHAN FORCE
758,625 primary security over NUMBERS BEFORE 2010
to the Afghan military in ARE LESS RELIABLE
2014. The U.S. pledges BECAUSE OF REPORTING
a full withdrawal by AND DATA
September 11, 2021. INCONSISTENCIES.

2000 ’05 ’10 ’15 ’20

CHRISTINE FELLENZ, THEODORE SICKLEY, NGM STAFF; LAWSON PARKER. SOURCES: AFGHANISTAN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES; ARMED
CONFLICT LOCATION & EVENT DATA PROJECT; FRED KAGAN, CRITICAL THREATS PROJECT; ELI BERMAN, JACOB SHAPIRO, EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF
CONFLICT; BILL ROGGIO, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES; AFGHANISTAN 2012 LAND COVER DATABASE, FAO; NATO; SPECIAL
INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION; UNHCR; UNODC; WFP

CENTURIES OF STRIFE THE COST OF CONFLICT

L A N D LO C K E D A N D S U R RO U N D E D by mountains, deserts, The U.S. government reports the war in Afghan-
and competing empires, this central Asian nation has istan has cost taxpayers nearly a trillion dollars,
been shaped by war and diplomacy since the Afghan but a Costs of War Project estimate, which
Empire was founded in 1747. A century later, geopo- includes the cost of health care for veterans and
litical rivalries between British interests in India to the interest on war-related borrowing, is twice that.
east and Russian expansion from the north helped
influence its present boundaries. Afghanistan’s AFRICAEUR. BUDGET BREAKDOWN
national identity also has been molded in its modern AFGHANISTAN
history by resistance to foreign incursions, nearly all ASIA Department of Defense war operations make
of them by non-Muslim powers. up most of the spending, with about 15 percent
INDIAN allocated for reconstruction efforts.
OCEAN
War ($734 billion)
Reconstruction ($130 billion) 5
4
War budgets shown here begin in October 2001,
when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, and run
through September 30, 2020. Full-year 2021 data
is not yet available.

Neighboring RUSSIAN INFLUENCE CHINA Total $21 billion
historic power IN 20
TA J I K I S TA N 15
UZB. C H IFNLEUSEEN C E 1 13 12
10
T U R K M E N I S TA N 3 1
3

IRAN Administration: George W. Bush Ba

I 2001 2005

P
N

E A F G H A N I S TA N 44 145 153 278 402 592 2,
F 1,984 2,200
HUMAN TOLL 3,
R U.S. troops 2,
L Afghanistan suffered more Coalition troops 9,
than 3,000 civilian deaths Afghan National Defense
S from armed conflict in each and Security Forces
U of the last seven years. In Civilians
2020, 43 percent of the dead
IAN PA K I S TA N were women and children.
ENC In the last two years, about
Durand Line R I TISH 30 to 40 Afghan forces were
F L UENC killed daily. Taliban and other
B E opposition deaths are esti-
mated at more than 50,000
E since the war began.

IN INDIA Killed Injured

The Durand Line 100 mi DATA FOR CIVILIANS STARTS IN 2009, FOR AFGHAN FORCES IN 2007. AFGHAN FORCES’ CASUALTIES, CLAS
Imposed by the British in 1893, the bor- 100 km AS OF 2017, ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND ARE ESTIMATES. SOURCES: SPECIAL INSPECTOR GEN
der placed half of Afghanistan’s dominant AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTION; DOD; WORLD BANK; COSTS OF WAR PROJECT, BROWN UNIVERSITY; UN
ethnic group, the Pashtun, under British
rule in what is now Pakistan.

1820 1860 1900 1940 1980 2020 Slow STANDARD OF LIVING

progress The country has improved on this ove
measure of income, health, and educa
Afghanistan is one of
the world’s poorest Best U.S.
countries but is seeing
First Anglo- Second Anglo- Third Anglo- Coup ousts Soviet Al Qaeda Taliban U.S. some advances. Access
Afghan war Afghan war to health care and edu-
Afghan war last king occupation appears in power Invasion cation has increased World
in the past 20 years,
especially for girls. But 0.511
conflict continues to
Royal rule (1747-1978) Anglo-Afghan wars Soviet-Afghan war U.S.-led invasion drive displacement, 0.302 Afghanistan 2019
Afghanistan is led by Britain tries to annex The U.S.S.R. invades to The Taliban regime is poverty, and hunger. ’00 ’10
monarchs, most of Afghanistan three prop up an unpopular ousted for sheltering Worst
them from the Pashtun times to curb Russian communist govern- al Qaeda and Osama MONICA SERRANO, CHRISTINE FELLENZ, 1990
ethnic group that dom- expansion and protect ment. Islamic guerrilla bin Laden after the 9/11 MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF;
inates today’s Taliban. British rule over India. resistance arises. attacks in the U.S. LAWSON PARKER

SOURCE: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX