[pronut-hiv] Somalia: One Killed in Shootout During Food Delivery

["ProNut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Somalia: One Killed in Shootout During Food Delivery 
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 

March 24, 2006
Nairobi

A Somali national was killed when gunmen exchanged fire at a village in
drought-stricken southern Somalia while the United Nations food agency
was delivering food aid, prompting the organisation to appeal to local
leaders and militias for safer access and protection.

The incident happened on Tuesday at Salagle village in Sakow district
when lorries contracted by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) were being
unloaded. Food distribution could not resume the following day because
of tension in the area, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

"Targeting humanitarian assistance is totally unacceptable; it is
callous and violates all international humanitarian principles," said
Zlatan Milisic, WFP Somalia country director. "Humanitarian agencies
cannot operate where assistance is being targeted. We are already
seriously challenged by the logistics of this mission and shouldn't have
to watch our backs as well. We rely on Somali leaders to guarantee the
safety of humanitarian workers and cargo."

"WFP condemns in the strongest terms this act of violence and calls on
the local communities in southern Somalia to act decisively against the
culprits. The agency expresses its sincere condolences to the family of
an innocent bystander killed in this incident and hopes for the speedy
recovery of the injured," the WFP statement said.

Some 1.4 million people in southern Somalia need emergency food aid and
other humanitarian assistance because of drought. Relief operations in
the country, where a total of 2.1 million people are in urgent need of
help, are being seriously hampered because of insecurity and
lawlessness.

On 1 March, a UNICEF staff member was abducted in southern Somalia and
released 30 hours later. On 13 March, a WFP-chartered ship managed to
escape an attack by pirates when it came under fire at sea a few hours
after unloading food at the port of Merka. No one was injured, but the
vessel was hit by gunmen who tried to intercept and board it from a
boat.

A spate of ship hijackings off the Somali coast in 2005, including the
detention of two WFP-contracted ships, has slashed ocean transport to
the Horn of Africa country and forced WFP to use more costly overland
routes to transport food from the port of Mombasa in Kenya.