Somalia: after deadly shooting at food centre, UN urges militias to let aid through

After a fatal shooting forced its staff to withdraw from a distribution centre in southern Somalia, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) appealed today to leaders and militias throughout the faction-torn country to grant access and protection to aid agencies helping 1.4 million victims of a worsening drought emergency.

“Continued insecurity and interruptions to assistance have the potential to kill thousands of Somalis, as surely as bombs and bullets,” WFP country director Zlatan Milisic said of Tuesday’s fire-fight between two militias at the distribution centre where agency-contracted trucks were unloading food.

“Targeting humanitarian assistance is totally unacceptable. It is callous and violates all international humanitarian principles. 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,” he added.

The trucks were being unloaded in Salagle village in Sakow district when two local militias exchanged gunfire. At least one local person was killed and several others were wounded. The distribution was stopped and WFP staff withdrew.

It was but the latest act hindering humanitarian operations in Somalia, where overall a total of 2.1 million people urgently need food aid and other support this year, causing unnecessary suffering, particularly to the most vulnerable - women and children – WFP said.

A UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) staff member was abducted in southern Somalia on 1 March and released 30 hours later. On 13 March, a WFP-chartered ship managed to escape during a gun attack by pirates a few hours after unloading WFP food at Merka.

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

Since mid-February, WFP has distributed 7,700 metric tons of food to 470,000 people in southern Somalia. An additional 10,000 tons of WFP food aid for 600,000 people is currently in the country and being transported for distribution.

WFP has so far received only $73 million out of the $130 million it needs to feed 1 million people in the south this year. Another 400,000 people in the south will be fed by the non-governmental organization, CARE.