The short life of French President Francois Hollande 's baby camel, offered by Malian authorities, ended quite tragically

this week, after it was reportedly eaten by a local family.

Mali offered the camel to President Hollande as a sign of gratitude after the French military

freed the Malian city, Timbuktu, from Islamic rebels in February.

But during its first meeting with his new owner, the camel immediately proved to be a burden,

as it would shout whenever the President would try to touch it, even covering Mali official s' speech with...

President Hollande raised his voice just enough so that he could joke around, promising he would use the camel

as a means of transportation in Paris as often as possible.

French magazine, Valeurs Actuelles, reports President Hollande wanted to transfer the animal to a Parisian zoo,

after having him vaccinated.

But French authorities settled for a much easier option.

France 24 reports on the camel 's tragic end.

President Francois Hollande decided he couldn't bring the camel back to France,

so he offered it to a family, a local family in Timbuktu who turned it into a tagine stew,

which looks somewhat like this.

Mali officials reacted to the news Tuesday, assuring President Hollande he will not be left camel - less.

The Daily Mail quotes a local official saying, " As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it

with a bigger and better looking camel.

The new camel will be sent to Paris.

We are ashamed of what happened to the camel, it was a present that did not deserve this fate."