[Jan 31, 1996] -- A Reuters story on January 25 said that authorities in the breakaway state of Somaliland, part of Somalia prior to 1991, were urgently requesting international assistance to investigate UFOs thought to be causing explosions and illness among the populace.
The government of Somaliland said that two explosions in the sky from UFOs were heard in December in the port city of Berbera on the Gulf of Aden and Sol and Sanaag regions to the east and southeast.
"We want the international community urgently to launch a comprehensive investigation into these explosions and what they are doing," a government minister told Reuters on January 24.
An investigative group sent to the area by the government reported that animals behaved strangely after the explosions and some residents fell sick. They said "a frightening thunder-like noise" was heard in the Sanaag, Berbera and Sol regions at 7 a.m. on December 5 and 7 p.m. on December 7.
"A few days after the explosions, inhabitants of the areas came down with various abnormal coughing, diarrhoea, breathing difficulties and headaches," the report said. "The most affected group were children and several were reported to have died.
"Animals in the area showed unusual behaviour of restlessness, irritability and weakness," the report added.
A witness said he saw an aircraft at low altitude flying over the town from the northwest on both dates in December and then heard a deafening explosion that shook the ground and his home.
Other witnesses said they saw a flying object with smoke trailing from it. The report said villagers in Adhiadye and Garadag reported a sudden increase of disease after the booms.
The reported effects might be attributed to some form of chemical agent or to residue from an exploding missile, but none of the warring parties are thought to possess such weapons. The government is opposed by two sub-clan militias, but the most technically-advanced large weapons they have are tanks dating from the 1940s and 1950s and small anti-tank rockets.
The government mission said the most likely explanation was "detonation of a missile booster" because no debris were seen falling from the sky and gases were reported seen burning in various colours.
"No evidence of damage to ground structures, such as the creation of a crater or soil disturbance, caused by a foreign body was observed," said the team, adding its investigation was limited.
CANADA
Two news stories by P.J. Harston of Northern News Service in Yellowknife, Northern Territory, Canada, dated January 15 and January 22, report a series of sightings of unusual aerial lights in the vicinity of Fort Resolution. The following is a summary of information posted on alt.paranet.ufo.
"An unidentified flying object (UFO) with blue, green and white lights was spotted hovering for almost an hour by about 50 individuals," Harston reported. "The spectacle was so intriguing, the North's top military commander, Col. Pierre Leblanc, travelled to the South Slave community Wednesday night [Jan 10?] with two military investigators." Leblanc and his team flew over the area, interviewed witnesses and optained a copy of a videotape shot by one witness. They intended to take their date back to Defense officials in North Bay, Ontario for further study.
According to Harston's story, Jim Bronskill, a reporter with the Canadian Press, recently researched UFO sightings files at the National Archives in Ottawa and found that UFOs have been reported in the North for as long as records have been kept.
Another witness, Leo Norweigian of Fort Simpson, told of a November sighting after hearing the Fort Resolution report. "He said he had seen a lot of things in his life, but nothing like these lights," Harston wrote. "He said he had seen lots of Northern lights and other atmospheric phenomena, he had even seen an unexplained glowing fireball shoot across the sky 25 years ago. But on Nov. 13, when he and an eight-year-old child witnessed lights on a hovering craft near Fort Simpson similiar to what was reported in Fort Resolution, he was baffled. 'I'm just glad that someone else has seen it too,' he said, admitting he didn't tell too many people about his sighting because he feared he wouldn't be believed."
The Alberta Unidentified Flying Object Research Association has launched an investigation into the recent sightings in the Western Arctic, as more reports of "flashing lights" are coming in from Fort Resolution as well as Hay River, Hay River Reserve and Fort Simpson. "What we'll do is collect as much data on the sightings as we possibly can, look at all the possibilities and forward that information to the witnesses," investigator Cory Sine said, adding that flashing lights like those reported in recent weeks could have a simple explanation -- as simple as a bright star low on the horizon, or the planet Venus. "I'm not saying that's the case, but it is one possibility," Sine said.
The Alberta UFO Research Association has a web site at http://ume.med.ucalgary.ca/~watanabe/ufo.html
MEXICO
According to talk radio personality Art Bell on his Sunday evening program "Dreamland" of January 28, many people have been sending him faxes from Mexico claiming a new wave of sightings in that country.
Mexico has been in the grip of an historic UFO flap since the day of the solar eclipse in 1992. Since then, dozens of daylight sightings have been captured on videotape and thousands of people have reported seeing clear, seemingly metallic structured objects in the sky in many parts of the country. Though little reported in the U.S., Mexican print and television news has covered the sightings extensively. One of Mexico's top television newsmen, Jaime Maussan, has made a personal crusade out of trying to get to the bottom of Mexico's UFO mystery.
Now, if Bell's claim is true, a new wave of sightings may be occurring in Mexico. At press time, ISCNI*Flash has no further information on these claims. Any reader who sends reliable information on these sightings will be much appreciated. [Email to Flash editor Michael Lindemann at ISCNIMikeL@aol.com]
AUSTRALIA
[ISCNI*Flash thanks MrBungl111@aol for the following information.]
Correspondent Ross Dowe in Australia says the National UFO and Sighting Hotline has received a number of calls since the January 7th. Many claimed to have seen an aerial object that beams a bright light at least 100 meters wide to the ground.
On Sunday, January 7 at 8:20 pm local time in Central East Northern Territory, a cattle station hand sighted in daylight a "battleship grey object," reportedly 100 feet wide by 40 feet high, with a box shape underneath measuring approximately 25 feet wide by 6 feet high. Estimated altitude was 130 feet. The top of the object seemed to be spinning very fast while the bottom was not moving. It emitted vapour and a smell like "steam off hot metal" and there was "a whirlwind or vortex underneath near wild livestock." The station hand, an ex-Marine and UN force member, reported that "the cattle and wild horses were transfixed [by] the object." He said he quickly evacuated the area, but managed to take some photos of the object.
A call on Tuesday, January 16 at approximately 11:30 pm local in Cairns, Queensland, reported an object at about 2 kilometers altitude emitting a shaft of light from its underside. The object appeared to "expel a gas or vapour from its sides and seemed to be about 2-300 meters in width. The beam emitted was about 150-250 meters wide." Reportedly the object moved up and down the white shaft of light in the East over the sea.
On Thursday, January 18 at approximately 10.30 [pm?] in Redland Bay, Queensland, callers reported sighting a "large green object" emitting a beam of white light downward in a "A-shape." The object appeared to be "about 2-300 meters" across with the beam of light about 100 meters across.
Again on Friday, January 19 at about 2:30 am at Millnmeran, Queensland, a caller witnessed a large object about 1-2 kilometers away. South East East. The report estimated the object at 200 meters across and multi-coloured, emitting a beam of light about 1-200 meters wide over a large creek in the area. The object appeared to be about 800 meters up.
Original file name: .CNI - Int'l UFO Sightings
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