A brand-new - and very first - camel race track was opened by Abu Dhabi in the Southwestern Sahara desert. The inauguration occurred during the continuous Tan-Tan Moussem festival here, where UAE takes part as guest of honor.

The Moroccan celebration near the town of Tan-Tan, which celebrates Bedouin customizeds and customs from throughout Sahara desert, is now in its 12th year, after being resumed in 2004. Its beginnings go far back to the days of nomadic life, when tribes travelled freely across Sahara and gathered for one week on a monthly basis of May to exchange desert news and celebrate their oral heritage. The moussem-- event-- became a festival in 1963, but it was banned in between 1979 and 2004 because of security problems in the area. Now it's back at being a yearly festival, attracting dozens of people from across Sahara, and recognized by UNESCO as an oral and intangible masterpiece for mankind.

The UAE, through the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee-- Abu Dhabi, is participating in the celebration for the 3rd year in a row. Given that 2015, the Emirati delegation, which likewise consists of the Advanced Scientific Group for (Swaihan's camel research centre), has actually been dealing with regional authorities of Tan-Tan and organizers of the celebration to open a professional camel race course at the festival's ground.

The track was inaugurated on Sunday, May 15th, by Sheikh Sultan bin Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Advisor to the UAE President and President of the UAE Camel Federation Committee, who took a trip to Tan-Tan particularly for this occasion.

The six kilometers long track, in the shape of a "U" letter, has lanes for both camels to race and for automobiles to follow them from start to finish. There are also numerous pens that allow for arranging camel mazeynah-- camel beauty competitions.

Moroccan Bedouins from the region occurred with some 200 camels for the inaugural race. There were 10 race rounds completely, based on the camels' age and gender, however only the first 4 races offered cash awards-- Moroccan Dirham 25,000 (AED 9,500) for each of the very first position of the four races.

"Camels are still very important here. In fact, there is a stating-- "he who has no camels has absolutely nothing"-- which still rings true today," stated Mohammed Rabati, a Moroccan Ministry of Interior agent in the area.

"Here" indicates Tan-Tan province, which has 7 communes, two city and 5 rural. Camel herding continues to be among the most vital profession in the Tan-Tan province, yet looking after camels still follows centuries old traditions, largely due to lack of access to contemporary veterinary knowledge and medicine.

The great news for Tan-Tan camel owners does not stop with a brand-new racing track. The UAE is going to help the people here establish veterinary centres and a camel racing culture, which can ultimately enhance their financial status.

"We are going to offer them camel embryos, so by this time next year they will have pedigree racing camels," revealed Khalifa Al Nuaimi, Chief Executive Officer of the Advanced Scientific Group, who was likewise in Tan-Tan for the opening of the camel race track.

The Group has actually been working for years to develop a camel embryo which allows numerous inseminations from the exact same female and male camel.

"Basically, me take an embryo from a pedigree racing camel and inseminated in 5 or 6 hosting female camels, so you would 5 or 6 infant camels born from the very same "mother" in one year," described Al Nuaimi.

A camel's pregnancy lasts for 12 to 13 months, so using artificial insemination means having numerous child camels of one camel born in one year utilizing a number of "host" camels.

"The process has actually been proved so successful that we now have a long list of clients waiting to have embryo transfer at our centre utilizing their own pedigree camels," said Al Nuaimi.

The Advanced Scientific Group now has 1200 of its own camels and over 5000 camels coming from their customers, nationals from all over the Gulf.

When the embryo transfer picks up here, Morocco camel owners might also sign up with the waiting list in the future.

"We are also planning to bring camel racers from here to Abu Dhabi, teach them how to look after camels and ways to manage them in racing, so then they return and teach other Moroccans, so a professional practice can develop," he concluded.

Tan-Tan Moussem celebration will go on until May 18th.