10 dead as famine aid looted in Mogadishu
Source: Agencies |
August 6, 2011, Saturday
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AT least 10 Somalis, among them refugees, died yesterday during a fire-fight that broke out in Mogadishu when troops and residents looted truckloads of food meant for famine victims, witnesses said.
Government troops opened fire and unloaded food aid onto wheelbarrows and minibuses and residents carried off sackloads of food on their shoulders shortly after a local aid organization began distributing food to thousands of Somali refugees.
The incident highlights the dangers facing aid groups struggling to operate in an anarchic country hit by years of drought and a never-ending cycle of violence.
The United Nations' World Food Program, which said 290 tons of maize and oil had been available for distribution at the site, confirmed an incident had occurred at Badbaado, a squalid, makeshift camp that is home to some 30,000 refugees.
"At least 10 people died and 15 others were wounded," Aden Kusow, himself a refugee, said from the camp.
"Seven died in the camp. The other three died outside as they fled. Most of those who died are refugees."
Some 3.7 million Somalis are at risk of starvation, the majority of them in the south, prompting hundreds of thousands to make the dangerous trek to Mogadishu and its outlying areas in search of food.
About 100,000 refugees have reached the capital in the last two months and hundreds more are streaming into the city daily, risking threats of attack by Islamist al-Shabaab militants who control most of the worst-hit drought areas.
Sacdia Kassim, a Somali aid worker, said looting was becoming a common occurrence in Mogadishu.
Government troops opened fire and unloaded food aid onto wheelbarrows and minibuses and residents carried off sackloads of food on their shoulders shortly after a local aid organization began distributing food to thousands of Somali refugees.
The incident highlights the dangers facing aid groups struggling to operate in an anarchic country hit by years of drought and a never-ending cycle of violence.
The United Nations' World Food Program, which said 290 tons of maize and oil had been available for distribution at the site, confirmed an incident had occurred at Badbaado, a squalid, makeshift camp that is home to some 30,000 refugees.
"At least 10 people died and 15 others were wounded," Aden Kusow, himself a refugee, said from the camp.
"Seven died in the camp. The other three died outside as they fled. Most of those who died are refugees."
Some 3.7 million Somalis are at risk of starvation, the majority of them in the south, prompting hundreds of thousands to make the dangerous trek to Mogadishu and its outlying areas in search of food.
About 100,000 refugees have reached the capital in the last two months and hundreds more are streaming into the city daily, risking threats of attack by Islamist al-Shabaab militants who control most of the worst-hit drought areas.
Sacdia Kassim, a Somali aid worker, said looting was becoming a common occurrence in Mogadishu.
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