Comoro Islands

The Seychelles Scops Owl was thought to be extinct for over a century before being rediscovered in 1959 on the island of Mahé.

The Anjouan Scops Owl of the Comoros Islands was similarly considered extinct before being found again in 1992 after decades without a confirmed sighting.

These rediscoveries highlight how little we know about the world’s most secretive owl species, many of which live in remote forests and are active only at night.

There are almost certainly owl populations that have never been surveyed, and possibly species that have not yet been described by science.

Mais oui, le Malawi et le Botswana ont tous les deux vu leur gardien titulaire expulsé sur carton rouge direct.

Les Comores, pire encore, ont terminé un match contre la Zambie à neuf joueurs, ce qui s'est logiquement soldé par une défaite trois-zéro.

C'est un casse-tête infernal.

Comment on prépare une équipe à ce genre de scénario catastrophe ?

Seychelles is a country composed of an archipelago of around 115 islands, which is, you know, a decent amount.

The islands are located in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Somalia and Madagascar, and its nearest neighbors are the Comoros Islands, Mauritius, the French overseas departments of Mayotte and Réunion, and the capital city of Victoria is something that is located 1,500 kilometers or around 800 nautical miles east of mainland Africa.

It is the smallest country in Africa, as well as the least populated sovereign African country, with a population of just over 100,000 people in 2022.

And these 100,000 people who occupy this island are referred to as the Seychelles.

In both situations, he was able to convince the hijackers to loosen their demands and land the plane safely on the ground.

In order to keep this option open, Abate followed the coastline of Africa, hoping that he might convince them to land in the Comoros Islands, situated off the eastern coast of Mozambique, between the southeast coast of Africa and the island of Madagascar.

But unlike times before, these hijackers were highly intoxicated and unwilling to listen.

After flying for four hours and getting dangerously low on fuel, Captain Abate made it clear what was about to happen.

Right.

It's late November 1996, and you're in the remote Comoros Islands.

It's this beautiful tropical playground nestled in the Indian Ocean, right between the African coast and Madagascar.

Oh, gorgeous area.

And he remembers this small personal atlas he keeps in his flight bag.

Right, like a normal map.

Yeah, he grabs this little book, flips open the pages, and spots the Comoros Islands.

He has no charts, no navigational aids.

And then we, you know, flew around the region capturing, picking up guys that had participated in the bombing and flown out at the last minute.

We tracked them to places like Pakistan and the Seychelles and the Comoros Islands and stuff like that.

It's interesting, Gary, because you say that, you know, you thought it was Hezbollah.

And of course, Iran is very much in the news today.

In 1952 his persistence paid off.

A keelacanth was caught off the Comoros Islands, a small volcanic archipelago between Madagascar and the coast of Mozambique, in the deep waters of the Mozambique Channel.

And here is where the story's pattern reasserts itself, where the recurring theme of every animal in this account surfaces again with the force of inevitability.

Local fishermen in the Comoros had been catching culicanths for generations.

So I was born in France.

My mom is originally from Comoros Island in Madagascar, which is also in the Indian Ocean.

And my dad is from the West Indies.

I'm really like an island girl basically.

But it's true, my identity is plural, and so my choice was to accept all of this and to sing in different languages, and it's just like a wedding of all those cultures.

So how many languages do you sing in?

I sing in French, English, Creole, and Shikomori, which is the language from Comoros Island.

And do you speak all those languages?