Thursday, March 19, 2009

Local WFP contractor killed in Somali

A UN World Food Programme (WFP) contractor was shot dead in the Somali capital Mogadishu overnight by unknown gunmen, local radio reported Thursday.

Ahmed Hussein Maalin, who worked as sub-contractor for WFP as aid transporter, was shot several times in the head by two young men armed with pistols who escaped the scene. Maalin, who was then outside his home in Mogadishu's Yaqshid district, was rushed to hospital but died on the way, local Shabelle radio reported.

This comes days after four UN aid workers, three foreigners and a Somali translator, were briefly kidnapped in the southern Wajid town as they prepared to leave for Nairobi. The UN staffers were released hours later following intervention by local community leaders and Islamist commanders in the area.

WFP is the largest aid distributor to the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people who are dependent on aid in the war-torn country. Close to 30 percent of the Somali population, or some 3.2 million people, are reliant on humanitarian assistance. One in every seven children is malnourished.

A number of aid workers have been killed, wounded or are still being held hostage in the volatile south Somalia where are the worst humanitarian crises and the vast majority of those in humanitarian emergency in the whole of the war wrecked east African country.

Source: ChinaView.cn

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