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| Last Updated: Jun 14, 2010 - 8:03:37 PM |
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WFP continue with aid work in Somalia: spokesman
2 Mar 2, 2010 - 2:52:13 AM
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A spokesman for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says the agency will continue distributing food aid to war-torn Somalia despite Islamist Al-Shabaab insurgent group orders to cease all its humanitarian operations.
Al-Shabaab, which controls much of south Somalia, accused the world food agency of giving out-of-date foodstuffs, undermining farmers and working under hidden political agenda
"WFP is determined to help the people of Somalia in need of assistance regardless of who controls the areas in which they live, as long as it is safe for our staff to do so," said WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon in Nairobi.
In January, the agency was forced to suspend all its operations in large areas of south Somalia because of harassment and extortion from the Islamist groups.
However, it is still delivers food aid in government-controlled areas of north including the capital Mogadishu.
Al-Shabaab said on Sunday that WFP’s deliveries of food aid at harvesting time damages the local economy by stopping Somali farmers from cultivating their own crops.
The United Nations estimates that millions of Somalis are in dire need of food aid due to a long conflict and repeated droughts in the Horn of Africa nation.
The Horn of Africa nation has been marred by chaos since the 1991 ouster of former President Mohamed Siad Barre.
GAROWE ONLINE
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