Camels can live in areas that are inhospitable to other domestic animals and are therefore an important factor in the capacity of humans to survive in and make use of these drier regions. Camels provide milk, meat, wool, hides and skin, and their dung is used for fires. They are used for riding and transport, they are a means of investment and long-term savings, they are a source of prestige for their owners, and there is a large market for trade in live camels. Sales of surplus milk, livestock or livestock products are sources of cash income for pastoral families. Camels are slaughtered for consumption and during ritual occasions. The camel seems to be spared from the devastating epidemic infections which threaten other livestock species in the same region, e.g. rinderpest, contagious pleuropneumonia and foot and mouth disease, the animal is however affected by many other diseases, some of which are unknown to date. Camel diseases that are shared with other species of livestock are comparatively well-known, while other camel-specific diseases, although well-known to pastoralists for generations, still remain a mystery to the scientific community. Somali herders are renown for their use of ethno-veterinary knowledge in matters of livestock health and husbandry (1, 4, 14). This knowledge is a valuable resource that can help in the identification of previously unrecognised livestock diseases. These diseases need to be studied and characterised for appropriate cures to be developed. This paper provides observations on and clinical descriptions of five camel diseases, namely, Lahaw-Gaal, Firaanfir, Laaba, Jajabsa and Yudleye, which are not described, or are poorly described in the literature. Materials and methods The observations and clinical descriptions of the diseases provided in this paper, as well as their names, are from north