Stop killing aid workers, says Somali insurgent chief

DJIBOUTI (AFP)

23/07/08

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.