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Africa Horn

Local aid workers in Somalia meet, flee

2008-07-15

(SomaliNet) As anxiety rose over growing insecurity and the unexplained killings of humanitarian staff, local aid workers in Somalia held crisis meetings on Sunday. This year, unidentified gunmen have killed at least three aid workers in the anarchic Somalia and are holding four of their foreign colleagues hostage. In the past week, fears were raised further by leaflets threatening local NGO workers with death if they did not quit their jobs.

Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesperson, condemned the killings of humanitarian workers. However, he accused some aid agencies of siding with the government and singled out the United Nations Development Programme for criticism, saying it had provided the police with vehicles and salaries.

Since development usually requires a competent police force ...

Aid sources said most agencies working in Somalia were discussing suspending operations in Mogadishu and the south. "It really is the end of the world if we now have to face death just because we are helping poor people," said a local doctor, who asked not to be identified.

In the latest violence, men armed with pistols shot dead the deputy head of a German charity south of the capital on Friday.

A week ago, gunmen killed Osman Ali Ahmed, the local head of the UNDP, in a similar attack. The governor of Baidoa, which hosts Somalia's parliament, said yesterday that UNDP staff had withdrawn from the town. "We expected them to stay and complete their projects, but now they have fled," Abdifatah Mohamed said.

And he can't understand why, either ...

UNDP officials could not immediately be contacted for comment.

As they were fleeing ...

Posted by:Steve White

#3 I'm under the impression that we're working our way in that direction slowly, Danielle, consolidating goodwill and small infrastructure improvements as we go.

Posted by: trailing wife 2008-07-15 12:55

#2 I thought we were taking the fight to wherever the terrorists were? If they have fled Iraq for greener pastures in Africa, we should be in hot pursuit. Also, the UNDP is noted for aiding the enemy and Somalia could just be their latest boondoggle. Nip this in the bud. Excerpt from a June 11 rport by Fox's George Russell:
After more than two years of accusations and probes into the operations of the United Nations Development Program in North Korea, a weighty report finally reveals how routinely, and systematically, the agency disregarded U.N. regulations on how it conducted itself in Kim Jong-Ils brutal dictatorship, passing on millions of dollars to the regime in the process.

The 353-page report, by a three-member External Independent Investigative Review Panel appointed by UNDP to investigate itself, was published with much fanfare last week after nine months of political maneuvering and research.

Click here to read the full report (pdf).

The report depicts an organization that for years apparently considered itself immune from its own rules of procedure as well as the laws and regulations of countries that were trying to keep weapons of mass destruction out of Kims hands.

Posted by: Danielle 2008-07-15 12:05

#1 Who would blame them, I know I sure as hell wouldn't want to be the only asshole in Somalia without a gun.

Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-07-15 11:06

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