Islamist militants have cut off emergency food delivery for an estimated 240,000 people in the central and southern regions of Somalia, according to relief workers, in an ominous development for one of the largest food-delivery programs in the famine-stricken east African nation.
Officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross said Friday that a 140-truck convoy carrying 3,500 tons of perishable food oil, beans, rice and seeds for the planting season has been held up for a month. The blocked supply, which the Somali militants haven't fully explained, comes as the country recovers from a grim two-year drought.
The Red Cross began a major push in October to deliver food aid to communities in Middle Shabelle and Galgaduud in central and southern Somalia. The organization had reached 1.1 million people when the militants stopped its convoy in mid-December. By that time, heavy rains had already delayed the shipment, which al Shabaab militants said they wanted to inspect.
"Our trucks have now been stuck for four weeks and we don't know why," said Anna Schaaf, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Nairobi.
Ms. Schaaf said that Red Cross officials are in discussions with local authorities in an effort to gain access before the food rots. The relief was scheduled to help impoverished Somalis until the current harvest.
Humanitarian workers said rains at the end of 2011 improved conditions for some people, but not enough to recover livestock and food stocks lost in one of the driest periods in 60 years. When the rains came, they were too strong in some areas and flooded or delayed many crops.
An offensive against al Shabaab may also be thwarting aid deliveries. African Union mission troops in Mogadishu, Kenyan troops in Somalia's south and Ethiopian troops fighting al Shabaab along its eastern border with Somalia have kept militants' leadership in flux and on the move, complicating tenuous agreements for safe passage.
International relief agencies working to stave off starvation in Somalia are frequently hassled by al Shabaab, whose members often demand payments in exchange for access to critically affected areas. Militants have taken a harder line against relief agencies and aid workers, diplomats said, since losing territory to international forces operating inside Somalia. In November, al Shabaab raided offices of several international aid agencies. It also issued a letter banning 16 relief organizations from operating in its domain.
The World Food Program, the world's largest food relief organization, has been unable to secure routes into many areas in southern Somalia since January 2010, said Challis McDonough, a spokeswoman for the United Nations agency in Nairobi. Ms. McDonough called the Red Cross one of too few organizations left with ability to access the most vulnerable communities in southern Somalia.
"The rains came and there was a slight easing of the immediate crisis, but people have lost so much and are so weakened that they will need sustained support until they can grow adequate crops," Ms. McDonough said.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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