Somalia Violence Drives Out Aid Workers

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14 July 2008

A string of kidnappings and targeted killings of aid workers in Somaliain recent weeks has prompted some international and local agencies tosuspend operations in Mogadishu and in other parts of the south. AsVOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports from our East Africa Bureau inNairobi, there is confusion about who may be responsible for theviolence.   

The head of a Somali group affiliated with theGerman charity Bread for the World says the organization has suspendedoperations in Somalia, following Friday's fatal shooting death of itsdeputy director at his home in Mogadishu.

In a separate attackearlier that day, the head of a local aid organization, SORDA, wascritically wounded by gunmen, as he distributed food to internallydisplaced people south of the capital. Also on Friday, an aid workerwas reportedly shot to death in a town in central Somalia as he lefthis house to attend services at a nearby mosque.

Eight days ago,gunmen shot and killed the director of the U.N. Development Program inMogadishu. Leaflets threatening local aid workers with death if theycontinue working have been found in Mogadishu and elsewhere.  

OnSunday, UNDP staff withdrew from the town of Baidoa, which hostsSomalia's transitional parliament, amid rising security concerns forits employees in the country.

The director of Mogadishu's MedinaHospital, Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, says even veteran humanitarian workers whohave survived 17 years of lawlessness and violence in Somalia,acknowledge the current security situation is the worst they havefaced.  

"Yes, they are afraid," he said. "Some of ourcolleagues, they got some threats. But you know, the situation is notso easy to talk about."

Suspicion for the attacks has fallen ona hardline Islamist opposition faction based in Eritrea, whichrejected a peace deal signed last month in Djibouti between theEthiopia-backed government and a more moderate opposition faction. Thehardline Islamists, along with a militant Somali group called theShabab, have vowed to continue fighting until all Ethiopian troopsleave Somalia.

Ethiopia's military intervened in Somalia in late2006 to remove Islamists from power and to install the country'ssecular government in its place. That move sparked a bloody,Islamist-led insurgency, which has left thousands dead and more thanone million people displaced.  

Through a combination of war,drought, and food shortages, the United Nations says three millionpeople in Somalia are facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisisthroughout the country. 

International and local humanitarianorganizations have declined to speak publicly about who may beresponsible for the attacks. But one western aid worker, speaking onthe condition of anonymity, tells VOA that there is no evidence tosuggest that Islamist insurgents are involved.