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Africa Horn
1.1 m Somalis hit as Al-Shabab forces ICRC food aid suspension
2012-01-13
GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross (ICRC) said on Thursday it had suspended food distribution to 1.1 million people in central and southern Somalia after Islamist terrorists militants blocked deliveries in parts of the famine-hit country.

A Somali government minister told Reuters the suspension could worsen the humanitarian crisis in a country where 250,000 Somalis already live in famine conditions and a total of 4 million need aid, according to UN figures.

The ICRC, which was one of the last agencies working in terrorist rebel-held areas, said terrorists militants had stopped its trucks since mid-December in the Middle Shabelle and Galgadud regions.

“The suspension will continue until we receive assurances from the terrorists authorities controlling those areas that distributions can take place unimpeded and reach all those in need, as previously agreed,” Patrick Vial, head of the ICRC delegation for Somalia, said in a statement.

The ICRC said it was talking to Al-Shabab, an Islamist terrorist rebel group linked to Al-Qaeda, to try and solve the problem as soon as possible.

The terrorists rebels, who are hostile to Western intervention in the lawless Horn of Africa country, outlawed 16 relief agencies in November.
So it's going to be a short conversation...
Somalia has been mired in anarchy since forever warlords toppled military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Abdullahi Haji Hassan, SomaliaÂ’s agriculture minister, said the action by the terrorists rebels would cause another humanitarian crisis, and called for international help to avert a disaster.

“Al Shabab wants the Somalis to perish,” Hassan told Reuters on Thursday.

The suspension also hit the ICRCÂ’s distribution of seeds and fertilizers to farmers, part or its emergency operation begun last October to combat the effects of severe drought and war.

Somalia is the ICRCÂ’s second largest humanitarian program after Afghanistan, with an initial budget of about 70.2 million Swiss francs for this year.

“The suspension of aid will have effect on both civilians and Al-Shabab ... Al Shabab terrorists fighters are parasites,” Hirsi Yusuf, the director of Somalia’s federal and reconciliation ministry told Reuters.

Residents said the terrorists militants wanted only Islamic agencies to provide aid in the areas it controls, and many would flee to the capital Mogadishu to find food.

“Al Shabab halted the ICRC aid a fortnight ago. Al Shabab wants only Islamic organizations like Islamic Relief which also operates here,” local elder Mohamed Nur told Reuters from Bardhere District in southwest Somalia. “We the people need ICRC to continue aid but we have no power to challenge Al-Shabab. The rebels openly told ICRC that Islamic organizations brought abundant food.”
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