SOMALIA: WFP could halt food distribution, calls for staff safety

SOMALIA: WFP could halt food distribution, calls for staff safety

NAIROBI, 22 January 2009 (IRIN) - Following the killing of two of its staff in early January, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has called upon local administrations and armed groups in south and central Somalia to ensure the safety of its staff if it is to continue distributing food to millions of vulnerable Somalis.
"We will not stop food distributions yet, but we will distribute all the food we currently have in the country and in the pipeline and that will be it. Until and unless we get assurances from the local leaders and the population that our staff can operate safely, we will not continue," Peter Goossens, WFP country representative for Somalia, told a news conference on 22 January in Nairobi.

He said the agency would distribute at least 57,000MT of food - enough to feed 2.5 million people - for up to two months.
"Our only goal in Somalia as an impartial international organisation is to alleviate the suffering of the Somali people," Goossens said. "We cannot do that when our courageous staff are being targeted."
Gunmen shot and killed Ibrahim Hussein Duale, 44, a Somali national, as he monitored a school-feeding programme on 6 January in a school near Garbahare, capital of Gedo region. On 8 January, Mohamud Omar Moallim, 49, another Somali national, was shot and killed as he monitored a food distribution to internally displaced persons in a camp northwest of Mogadishu.
Goossens said WFP was demanding "concrete commitments" from community leaders and local parties that its staff would be protected in order to continue operations in coming months.

"With the murder of two of our staff within three days, we initially considered suspending WFP food distributions until security improves," he said. "But such a step would hurt the very people we seek to help - especially women and children suffering the most from this merciless conflict.
"We want community leaders to step forward and offer us clear assurances that WFP workers will be able to carry out their humanitarian work in safety. We will continue distributing food in those areas where we receive concrete security commitments, but we will not work in areas where security commitments are absent."
Despite the presence of a transitional government in the country since 2004, parts of Somalia are controlled by armed groups and local organisations such as the Union of Islamic Courts and Al Shabab - a local militia.

More than a decade of conflict, drought, high food prices and fuel prices have combined to fuel instability in the war-torn country, with up to one million people displaced since early 2007. According to WFP, these factors have increased the number of those needing humanitarian aid in Somalia to 3.25 million, almost half the population.
The January killings bring to four the number of WFP staff killed in Somalia since August 2008. Five WFP-contracted employees were killed in the country in 2008. Human rights organisations have said at least 40 civil society activists and humanitarian workers were attacked and killed in Somalia in 2008.
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