UNITED NATIONS – Around midnight on Sunday, Somali militants launched an assault on a compound in Wajiid belonging to the World Food Program (WFP). The UN has spoken out strongly against those responsible for the attack.

This is the fourth time in recent weeks that WFP property has been attacked and under a month since Somali fighters struck two UN facilities at Baidoa and Wajiid, taking equipment and automobiles. The later incidents caused some humanitarian initiatives to be suspended.

In May, a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) compound in Jowhar was seized and vital provisions and equipment stolen or damaged. The agency also had supplies taken from a warehouse in Jammame.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Graham Farmer told the international community, “This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid organizations and aid workers is intolerable.” He insisted that aid workers must be able to provide assistance to the Somali people without fearing for life and limb.

This echoed Rozanne Chorlton, the representative of the UNICEF for Somalia who last week explained, “We need concrete assurances from local authorities for the safe delivery and storage of supplies to ensure that we can carry out programmes for the survival of Somali women and children.”

She went on to say, “We hope these assurances will be forthcoming very soon so that we can continue our operations at a level that matches the needs of children and women and prevent the deaths that will otherwise certainly occur.”

Mr. Farmer has called for humanitarian personnel to be allowed unfettered freedom of movement in order to help the approximately 3.2 million Somalis, 40 percent of the people in the country, who rely on international aid.

As a result of the insecurity, the UNICEF has also pushed back an operation to combat severe malnutrition. It was scheduled to give out provisions for more than 85,000 children in the central and southern parts of the country. The agency also was to provide insecticide covered bed nets to over 100,000 women and children.

Somalia has been hit not only by instability but also by drought, hyperinflation, and spiraling food costs.

In a piece of good news, four employees of the French NGO Action Against Hunger who had been held since November 2008, along with two pilots, were let go last week. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah announced, “It is with great satisfaction that I received the news concerning the release of the six hostages who had been held for so long, and taken into captivity while working in Somalia.” He insisted that those still being held be liberated.

Source: MaximsNews Network

By BY CAROLINE PATTON

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