Al-Shabab have said that aid agencies they expelled from the region earlier will not be allowed to return to help in Somalia as it continues to struggle with a worsening famine. Al-Shabab, is going back on a previous promise to open up the nation to relief.
The UN World Food Program was planning to return to Somalia with food shipments by air and sea. The U.N. told reporters that it had not heard about the rebels' new position and planned to go ahead with aid. Al-Shabab had promised to allow relief agencies with "no hidden agendas" to deliver aid to Somalia, according to the report.
Al-Shabaab spokesman, Ali Mohamud Raghe, told a press conference late Thursday that agencies that were banned by them would not be allowed to operate in their territory.
"They had problems with people and had a hidden agenda. We shall also expel any agency that causes problems for Muslim society," he said, urging hungry Somalis to stay at home and wait for the rain rather than going to foreign-run refugee camps. According to a Voice of America story, Al-Shabab has called the UN's declaration of famine in Somalia "a propaganda". |