UN envoy accuses Somali government of obstructing aid work

[Xoogsade]

GENEVA (AFP) - Somalia's government is obstructing the work of aid workers it accuses of "feeding terrorists" as the country grapples with an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis, an UN envoy said Friday.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Eric Laroche, the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, told journalists in Geneva that civil war and the worst harvest in ten years had left some 1.5 million people in need of assistance.

 

Civilians are increasingly vulnerable to suicide and roadside bombs, phenomena previously unknown in the conflict but which are "concomitant" with the fighting between government troops and Islamist rebels, Laroche noted.

 

Some 750,000 people have been forced to flee their homes and are internally displaced, often because they belong to a clan that the government deems hostile, he said.

 

"These people are kids, these people are mothers ... we're not talking about combatants," he said.

 

Laroche described meeting one such displaced child at a refugee camp, one of the many squalid settlements mainly in the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu, the epicentre of 16 years of conflict.

 

"I was with a young girl, she was 8 years old. Her arm had been blown off by a rocket which had hit her house. Her father the same day was killed. Her mother the same day was killed. Her sister the same day was killed. And she's a terrorist, according to the government."

 

"This is just manipulation from the part of the government... they don't want us to do our work," Laroche said, adding that he had personally been intimidated and forced to leave one camp by armed men.

 

He stressed that the UN always strives for impartiality in its humanitarian work and would continue its aid efforts despite government harassment.

 

"The principles of the United Nations are humanitarian imperatives, neutrality and impartiality," he said.

 

But Somali government officials rejected the accusations, three days after President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed ordered his forces to free Idris Mohamed Osman, the officer-in-charge World Food Programme office in Mogadishu from a six-day detention.

 

"It is very unfortunate that the UN humanitarian chief is criticising the government," said Somali deputy parliament speaker Mohamed Omar Dalha.

 

"I don't believe the government would get involved in obstruction of aid," he told AFP from the Somali southcentral town of Baidoa.

 

Dalha explained Yusuf's gesture in freeing the WFP staffer was a gesture that his regime would not "obstructs aid work for its people."

 

Osman's arrest forced WFP to halt delivery of food to about 75,000 people in Mogadishu, two days after the operation had resumed after a three-month suspension.

 

As the government forces tackles a deadly insurgency erupted in Mogadishu early 2007 when Islamic militants were ousted, Yusuf is urging parliament to sack Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi for failing in his duties.

 

Underlying the power struggle is the kind of clan rivalry that has fuelled seemingly endless and bloody power struggles since Somalia acquired independence in 1960.

 

The conflict erupted after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and has defied numerous initiatives to restore lasting in the country of 10 million.

 

The UN expects to appeal for some 400 million dollars (278 million euros) in aid for Somalia for 2008, up from 308 million dollars this year, Laroche explained.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071026/wl_africa_afp/unsomaliaconflictunrestaid_071026211806

[Castro]

Somalia Faces Major Humanitarian Crisis

 

By Lisa Schlein

Geneva

26 October 2007

 

 

The top United Nations Official in Somalia says that country is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in over a decade. He says aid workers are operating in a climate of suspicion and are subjected to enormous pressure and harassment from all parties. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva.

 

Eric Laroche, Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, speaks during a press briefing on the humanitarian situation in Somalia, at the United Nations building in Geneva, 26 Oct 2007

Eric Laroche speaks during a press briefing on the humanitarian situation in Somalia, at the United Nations building in Geneva, 26 Oct 2007

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Eric Laroche, says Somalia is reeling from a combination of natural and man-made disasters. He says a major drought and severe floods have rendered many people homeless and caused extensive crop loss.

 

In April, he says Somalia was confronted with its worst civil war in 10 years. Fierce fighting between transitional government forces and rebel groups caused a mass exodus from the capital Mogadishu.

 

He says more than three quarters of a million people are now displaced. Most have fled to overcrowded areas south of the capital.

 

"Many people do not feel at home in Mogadishu," said Laroche. "Many of the mothers and fathers cannot feed their kids anymore. The enrollment rate in schools has dropped by 50 percent in Mogadishu. In the last month, there were 25,000 people leaving Mogadishu. Every day we now have 1,000 people leaving Mogadishu."

 

Laroche says one and one half million people throughout the country need humanitarian assistance.

 

He says all these problems are compounded by a major political crisis. He notes increased tension between the President and Vice President of Somalia's transitional government is adding fuel to the competing demands of clan leaders, warlords, rebel groups and militia.

 

And squeezed in-between this dangerous mix he says are the humanitarian aid workers who are viewed with suspicion by all sides.

 

"The harassment that health workers have been subject of, including myself, is on the increase-has been on the increase since the IDPs [internally displaced people] have been fleeing Mogadishu," said Laroche.

 

"The fact that we started providing assistance to the IDP's. The government is always saying you are feeding the terrorists, is the term they are employing, using, you are feeding the terrorists. The reason they say said is precisely because it goes against their own interests," he added.

 

U.N. Coordinator Laroche says it is extremely difficult to deliver aid to the displaced. He notes trucks carrying relief supplies to people in south and central Somalia have to pass more than 200 different roadblocks. At each one of these, he says drivers are forced to pay between $30 and $400 to the guards on duty.

 

Over the past few months, he says targeted assassinations, roadside bombs and suicide bombers have been used with increasing frequency. Until now, he says these tactics never existed, making Somalia even more dangerous than before.

Source