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| Africa Horn |
| Somalia Violence Drives Out Aid Workers |
| 2008-07-15 |
| A string of kidnappings and targeted killings of aid workers in Somalia in recent weeks has prompted some international and local agencies to suspend operations in Mogadishu and in other parts of the south. As VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi, there is confusion about who may be responsible for the violence. The head of a Somali group affiliated with the German charity Bread for the World says the organization has suspended operations in Somalia, following Friday's fatal shooting death of its deputy director at his home in Mogadishu. In a separate attack earlier that day, the head of a local aid organization, SORDA, was critically wounded by gunmen, as he distributed food to internally displaced people south of the capital. Also on Friday, an aid worker was reportedly shot to death in a town in central Somalia as he left his house to attend services at a nearby mosque. Eight days ago, gunmen shot and killed the director of the U.N. Development Program in Mogadishu. Leaflets threatening local aid workers with death if they continue working have been found in Mogadishu and elsewhere. On Sunday, UNDP staff withdrew from the town of Baidoa, which hosts Somalia's transitional parliament, amid rising security concerns for its employees in the country. The director of Mogadishu's Medina Hospital, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, says even veteran humanitarian workers who have survived 17 years of lawlessness and violence in Somalia, acknowledge the current security situation is the worst they have faced. "Yes, they are afraid," he said. "Some of our colleagues, they got some threats. But you know, the situation is not so easy to talk about." |
| Posted by:Fred |