The UN yesterday shrugged off a claim by al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents that a ban on foreign aid groups remained in force in famine-stricken Somalia, saying it would “work where it’s feasible.”
“Al Shebab is not a monolithic organization. Those in control of various parts of the south are not one controlling command,” said Emilia Casella, spokeswoman for the World Food Programme. “It’s important to note that we’re working where we can. We’re making plans to work where it’s feasible.”
Earlier in the day, the Shebab said a ban on foreign aid groups remained in force, raising fears that plans by aid groups to deliver emergency supplies to the rebel-held regions would be scuttled.
Photo: AFP
In a broadcast on the Islamist al -Furqaan radio, Shebab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage also said that “there is drought in Somalia but not famine — what is declared by the UN is 100 percent false.”
“The declaration of famine is political and is a lie with hidden agendas,” he said, admitting only that there is “a shortage of rain.”
Just weeks earlier, the insurgents had said they had lifted the ban on aid groups.
Relief groups had welcomed the easing of the two-year-old ban when the rebels appealed for help in the face of a severe drought that the UN said this week had left the southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions suffering famine.
The hardline rebels banned several foreign aid agencies from 2009, accusing them of being Western spies and Christian crusaders, and imposed strict rules that effectively impaired any humanitarian work in areas under their control.
They include the World Food Programme, the UN Development Programme, UN Department of Safety and Security, the UN Political Office for Somalia and UN Mine Action. Others are World Vision, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and Diakonia.
Despite the Shebab U-turn yesterday, UN refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: “We have no evidence that this work will be hampered further by this statement.”
Her agency was working in Somalia through local non-governmental organizations, she added.
Somalia is the worst affected country in the drought-hit Horn of Africa region, with malnutrition rates the highest in the world. Tens of thousands have already died in Somalia in recent months, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, while thousands others have fled to seek refuge in Ethiopia and Kenya.
The US and the UN stressed Thursday the “acute urgency” of the severe drought spreading through the region.
Donors countries have ramped up aid pledges to assist the drought-stricken millions and the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week urged them to come up with US$1.6 billion in aid to combat the crisis.
Retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu yesteday asked the international community to take action to alleviate the suffering in Somalia and other drought-stricken countries in the Horn of Africa.
“I wish to appeal to the international community, and in particular to the richer countries who have responded so generously to humanitarian crises in the past: Please remember Africa,” he said in a statement.
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