WUNRN
Source:
Reuters - By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Jan
12, 2012 (Reuters) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
said on Thursday it had suspended food distribution to 1.1 million people in
central and southern Somalia after Islamist militants blocked deliveries in
parts of the famine-hit country.
A Somali
government minister told Reuters the suspension could worsen the humanitarian
crisis in a country where 250,000 Somalis already live in famine conditions and
a total of 4 million need aid, according to U.N. figures.
The ICRC,
which was one of the last agencies working in rebel-held areas, said militants
had stopped its trucks since mid-December in the Middle Shabelle and Galgadud
regions.
"The
suspension will continue until we receive assurances from the authorities
controlling those areas that distributions can take place unimpeded and reach
all those in need, as previously agreed," Patrick Vial, head of the ICRC
delegation for Somalia, said in a statement.
The ICRC
said it was talking to al Shabaab, an Islamist rebel group linked to al Qaeda,
to try and solve the problem as soon as possible.
The rebels,
who are hostile to Western intervention in the lawless Horn of Africa country,
outlawed 16 relief agencies in November.
Somalia has
been mired in anarchy since warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad
Barre in 1991.
Abdullahi
Haji Hassan, Somalia's agriculture minister, said the action by the rebels
would cause another humanitarian crisis, and called for international help to
avert a disaster.
"Al
Shabaab wants the Somalis to perish," Hassan told Reuters on Thursday.
The
suspension also hit the ICRC's distribution of seeds and fertilisers to
farmers, part or its emergency operation begun last October to combat the
effects of severe drought and war.
"We are
in touch with local representatives of al Shabaab where the events have
occurred - 140 trucks have been blocked since mid-December," ICRC
spokeswoman Marie-Servane Desjonqueres said.
MALNOURISHED
CHILDREN
Somalia is
the ICRC's second largest humanitarian programme after Afghanistan, with an
initial budget of about 70.2 million Swiss francs for this year.
Its
programmes to help severely malnourished children, and provide health care and
clean water in other parts of Somalia, including Mogadishu, were continuing,
Desjonqueres said.
"The
suspension of aid will have effect on both civilians and al Shabaab ... Al
Shabaab fighters are parasites," Hirsi Yusuf, the director of Somalia's
federal and reconciliation ministry told Reuters.
Residents
said the militants wanted only Islamic agencies to provide aid in the areas it
controls, and many would flee to the capital Mogadishu to find food.
"Al
Shabaab halted the ICRC aid a fortnight ago. Al Shabaab wants only Islamic
organisations like Islamic Relief which also operates here," local elder
Mohamed Nur told Reuters from Bardhere District in southwest Somalia.
"We the
people need ICRC to continue aid but we have no power to challenge al Shabaab.
The rebels openly told ICRC that Islamic organisations brought abundant
food." (Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar in Mogadishu;
Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Heavens)