The honorary envoy representing Republic of Djibouti in the country, Said Shamo, has appealed for more food support for millions of Somalis, some of them reportedly starving to death.
Shamo, himself a native Somali, said in a recent interview in Dar es Salaam that the situation in Somalia was calling for more efforts to save innocent lives, including those of children, women and the elderly.
The envoy is among five prominent businessmen picked by President Jakaya Kikwete for a special committee on Friday last week charged with co-ordinating Tanzania’s relief efforts targeting famine-ravaged Somalia. Others are Reginald Mengi, Ibrahim Zakaria, Said Bakhresa and Gulum Dewji.
As part of efforts to gather more food supplies for starving Somalis, the envoy and fellow Somali Diaspora in the country has contributed USD 160,000 (over 250m/-) for buying food for millions of people facing hunger in different parts of the war-torn country.
According to Shamo, the money was raised during an Iftar hosted by President Jakaya Kikwete for Somali transitional unity government (TUG) Sheikh Sharrif Ahmed, who visited Tanzania recently.
“During the Iftar, the Somali diasporas in Tanzania made up of Tanzanians with Somali origin and Somalis living in Tanzania offered a support of USD 160,000, equivalent to Tanzanian shillings 256m/-,” said the envoy.
Speaking at the occasion, Sheikh Ahmed said, “Somalis under the TUG have been looking to the government and Tanzanians as fellow Africans who under the spirit of brotherhood and African unity can offer a valuable support to our efforts to re-construct our country.”
He hailed the Kikwete administration for sustaining Tanzania’s unshaken political stability, healthy democracy and remarkable social as well as economic development achieved over 50 years of self rule.
“Being Africans, we have to take time and see pride in ourselves against negative media coverage we receive from other quarters of the world. For Tanzania, myself, the TUG and Somalis, we feel pride in seeing Tanzania able to support itself and support us in reuniting Somalia,” added Sheikh Ahmed.
In his remarks, the host, President Kikwete affirmed Tanzania’s full commitment to ensure TUG was able to drive the process of restoring peace and stability in the horn of Africa country.
“As brothers, we really appreciate your efforts to come here so that we can jointly talk and exchange ideas on how best we can move forward in restoring peace in Somalia and in speeding up social as well as well as economic development in the African continent in general,” he said.
Kikwete also expressed full support to Somalis in this time of need as millions had no food.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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