From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 23 2008 - 14:29:53 EDT
Stop killing aid workers, says Somali insurgent chief
July 23 2008
DJIBOUTI (AFP) — Somalia's insurgent Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan
Dahir Aweys on Wednesday called for a halt to the killing and
kidnapping of aid workers in the violence-riven country facing an acute
food shortage.
"The Somali people need humanitarian assistance:
food and medicine which they cannot afford," Aweys told AFP from
Eritrean capital Asmara.
"Killing and abduction of aid workers
must stop," said Aweys, who on Tuesday claimed the leadership of the
Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), an umbrella opposition
group.
A total of 19 aid workers have been killed in Somalia this
year while 13 others have been abducted, according to the United
Nations.
At least 2.6 million Somalis are facing hunger due to
acute food shortfalls spurred by prolonged drought, insecurity and high
inflation.The UN's famine monitors have warned that the figure could hit 3.5 million by the end of the year.
"There
are some Somalis who harm aid agencies. They must cease their actions
immediately," added Aweys, an influential cleric designated by the
United States as a terrorist with ties with Al Qaeda.
Aid groups
have scaled down operations in Somalia owing to increased insecurity,
largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war
since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces in early 2007.
Somalia
has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre, sparking a deadly power struggle that has defied
numerous bids to restore stability in the Horn of Africa nation.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ihgSJn9hk76aVDOyphq7d2SpNq5Q
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