Date: 04 Jun 2010
Death rates to rise without return to U.N. distribution * Up to one million affected by rebels' rejection of aid
By Jeremy Clarke
NAIROBI, June 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Somalis denied international aid in al Shabaab-controlled parts of the country face rising death rates from severe malnutrition and disease, the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
In January, WFP suspended food aid to much of southern Somalia, citing the threat to its staff there and the conditions imposed by al Shabaab, such as limiting the role of women in the distribution of aid.
The al Qaeda-linked group, which enforces its own strict interpretation of sharia law, has since called on WFP to leave Somalia entirely and accused the agency of handing out expired food and being politically linked to Ethiopia.
The U.N. estimates that nearly half of the Somali population needs humanitarian aid and the country has the world's highest malnutrition levels. Up to one million people were affected when WFP suspended aid in large parts of southern Somalia.
"Al Shabaab have been very categorical about WFP not coming in and even more categorical about food assistance not coming in," Amir Abdulla, WFP's Chief Operating Officer, told Reuters.
"In the Afgooye corridor about 400,000 people are trapped and the capacity for food production there is negligible. Whatever they owned, a goat or a chicken, they will have sold now. At best they are getting one meal per day," Abdulla said.
WFP has led the international response to Somalia's acute humanitarian crisis, currently reaching almost two million in the failed state, where at least 21,000 have died in fighting in the last three years and 1.5 million driven from their homes.
But those stuck in the Afgooye corridor just outside the capital face a grim future if aid is withheld from them much longer, said Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for WFP in Nairobi. "Most are women and children who fled Mogadishu with just the clothes on their back. The last aid we got to them was in November last year. Malnutrition will increase, they are now more prone to disease -- death rates will rise," he said.
Al Shabaab -- which means "the youth" in arabic -- have banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and watching soccer, and are accused of publically whipping women for wearing bras, which they say constitute a deception. (Editing by Richard Lough and Giles Elgood)
For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.alertnet.org
No comments:
Post a Comment