AU Soldiers

"Landep News"

AU Soldiers

Heavy fighting erupted in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, one day after the United Nations World Food Programme began airlifting humanitarian aid to the people of this country in the Horn of Africa, where the drought left one third of the country in a deep state of famine.

At least four people were reported killed as the governmental forces engaged in shooting with the Islamist insurgents of al-Shabab. The troops in Mogadishu are backed up by forces dispatched in the region by the African Union.

It is considered that the fighting broke out in the northern areas of the capital, and that they will not affect the aid project. Thousands were reported to have come to the government-controlled areas to request food.

If governmental forces succeed in clearing the capital of insurgent presence, this could only benefit the food aid programme, giving the UN agents more ground to cover, and more people to help.

World Food Programme delivered its first cargo of food on Wednesday since the United Nations have declared two regions of Somalia famine-stricken, and others highly exposed to the phenomenon.

The Somali government controls only a part of the capital, the airport, the port and parts of the south. The fighting that erupted on Thursday at dawn was launched by the governmental forces and the African Union army, and is aimed at drawing the al-Shabab out of the capital days before the holy month of Ramadan starts for the Muslims.

Famine in Somalia

Al-Shabab has executed suicide bombings during the Ramadan in the past, and that is a good reason for the government to have them out of the capital, where 100,000 people were reported to have come in search for food, after they fled the areas controlled by the troops of the Islamic organization linked to the al-Qaeda.

Earlier this week, the al-Shabab announced that they would not allow the presence of the UN agencies that wish to help the people in Somalia, and stated that the proclaiming of two regions of the country as famine-stricken is pure exaggeration and propaganda.

According to officers of the African Union forces during the clashes on Thursday 41 al-Shabab fighters surrendered.

Earlier this week the foreign minister of Somalia estimated that 3.5 million people were starving to death in his country, which prompted the international community to send the food by plane, since by sea it would have taken months until it got there.

A donor convention was held yesterday in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and the money that was raised is supposed to finance the support program for the next 12 months. The king of Saudi Arabia offered on Wednesday $10 million in support for the people of African Horn affected by drought.

Even though 10 tons of a paste high in protein and energy was delivered by the first airlift, it is still only a drop in the ocean considering that it would be enough to feed no more that 3,500 malnourished people for a month, whereas the demand is, as the foreign minister assessed, one thousand times higher.

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