DATE=9/22/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SOMALIA FIGHTING (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254193
BYLINE=JENNIFER WIENS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: New outbreaks of fighting in Somalia have left
more than two dozen people dead. The violence comes
as international relief agencies stop all activities
in southern Somalia following last week's murder of an
aid worker. Jennifer Wiens has more from V-O-A's East
Africa bureau.
TEXT: International aid agencies say they won't be
going back to southern Somalia until they can be
assured of better security for aid workers. That
announcement came this week from the Somalia Aid
Coordination Body - or S-A-C-B - which oversees all
United Nations and N-G-O (non-government
organizations) relief efforts in Somalia.
The relief halt follows last week's killings by
bandits of Ayub Yarrow, a doctor with the United
Nations Children's Fund. It was the latest in a
string of incidents where aid workers have been killed
by Somali gunmen.
Duarte Carvalho of S-A-C-B says the people of southern
Somalia will regain international aid only by bringing
Dr. Ayub's killers to justice.
/// Act Carvalho ///
If the communities in Mogadishu and surrounding
(area) want the international community
activities (to) keep going on, it is an issue of
security, and this is something they can prove
by putting them in jail.
/// End act ///
Many observers say the security situation in the south
does appear to be worsening. On Monday, fighting
broke out in the town of Kismayu when members of two
rival subclans argued over the ownership of a gun-
mounted truck. The dispute quickly became a battle.
Witnesses say members of the Habir Gidir clan and the
Ogaden clan fought each other using artillery, machine
guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
/// Opt /// Caught in the crossfire were the town's
residents. Casualty estimates range from 15 to 30
dead, most of them civilians. About 50 people were
wounded. Among those killed was Abdullah Qorrehey, a
prominent businessman and community elder, who was
shot while trying to negotiate a stop to the fighting.
Also on Monday, about 15 people were killed in the
town of Balad, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, when
rival militias exchanged fire in a residential
neighborhood. Most of the dead were civilians killed
by shells from anti-tank weapons that were misfired
into houses. /// End opt ///
These latest incidents underscore the continuing
violence and lawlessness that have gripped Somalia for
the past eight years. Lacking a central government,
the country is controlled by heavily armed militias
and clans. Most Somalis live a borderline existence
continually disrupted by civil conflict, with no
government protection or assistance. The problems are
especially bad in the country's south and particularly
around the capital, Mogadishu.
The international aid community has helped in getting
food, medicine and other supplies into that region,
but now that help is on hold. Relief agency spokesman
Duarte Carvalho says the disruption of relief work
means that 70-million dollars' worth of food and other
aid scheduled to be disbursed over the next six months
probably will not be delivered.
/// Act Carvalho ///
It is most probably a long halt. Again, it is
the population that will suffer. That means
these bandits and these warlords are keeping the
population hostage with their crazy activities.
/// End act ///
The spokesman also says aid organizations are planning
a complete reassessment of aid activities in Somalia,
which might include a shifting of recent efforts away
from areas controlled by clans or militias deemed
unfriendly to the aid agencies.
NEB/JW/GE/rrm
22-Sep-1999 11:44 AM EDT (22-Sep-1999 1544 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
