By Megan Rowling
LONDON (AlertNet) - The World Food Programme (WFP) is looking at whether it can restart aid operations in southern Somalia, after the hardline Islamist rebels who control the drought-hit region said relief agencies could resume assistance there.
The U.N. food aid agency withdrew from areas under al Shabaab control in southern Somalia at the beginning of 2010 because of threats to its employees, the imposition of informal taxes and a move to keep out female staff. It has continued to work in Mogadishu and central and northern Somalia, providing food assistance to 1.5 million people.
"As a humanitarian agency with a mandate to alleviate hunger, WFP will not stand by while the lives of hundreds of thousands – many of them children – are under threat in southern Somalia," WFP said in a statement on Wednesday.
"With needs so great in southern Somalia, WFP is working with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator to explore every possibility to return – if conditions allow, and if the necessary security clearance from the United Nations is granted," it added.
It will also consult with donor governments to ensure they are comfortable with the complexities and risks associated with restarting activities.
A week ago, insurgent group al Shabaab said it was lifting a ban it had imposed on some humanitarian agencies supplying aid in areas it controls in the Horn of African nation, mainly in the south.
Many Somalis are increasingly struggling to survive the compounding stresses of conflict and worsening drought. Thousands are abandoning their homes and streaming across the Kenyan and Ethiopian borders, seeking refuge in overcrowded camps.
An al Shabaab spokesperson told journalists that all aid agencies, Muslim and non-Muslim – "whose objective is only humanitarian relief" – are now free to help drought-stricken Somalis, once they have contacted its drought committee.
WFP spokesperson Greg Barrow told AlertNet from Rome that the agency has since reached out to the rebel group via the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, but has yet to receive a response.
SAFETY GUARANTEES
The United Nations says some 2.85 million people in Somalia need emergency aid, and in the worst-hit areas one in three children is suffering from malnutrition.
But local analysts in Somalia told Reuters al Shabaab had lifted the aid ban in the south to generate money to fund its war effort. It has previously asked aid agencies to pay a hefty registration fee.
The international humanitarian community has welcomed the announcement with caution, saying the safety of aid workers must be assured.
"We are ready to scale up assistance in southern Somalia but need guarantees that humanitarian workers can operate safely and will not be taxed or targeted," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said in a statement on Tuesday.
WFP's Barrow said the agency needs to know what the operating conditions in southern Somalia would be, because it is concerned about the security of its staff, of the food aid it would bring in, and of all the equipment required to support operations, including sub-offices, trucks and storage tents.
The U.N children's fund, UNICEF, told AlertNet last week it was hoping broad cooperation agreements could be put in place to allow humanitarian efforts to be stepped up.
The agency already has national staff working in southern Somalia, but operating conditions are difficult, said Bob McCarthy, UNICEF's regional emergency advisor based in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
A relaxation of the restrictions on aid agencies could provide an urgently needed window to stabilise the immediate crisis, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate the longer-term work UNICEF does to support children, he added.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/wfp-mulls-resuming-ssomalia-food-aid/
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