France gives $1.3 for Somalia displaced
2013-01-10 10:26
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Nairobi - France on Wednesday pledged to give $1.3m to help
the poorest of the hundreds of thousands of people in southern Somalia forced
from their homes by war and famine.
The aid will enable the International Organisation for
Migration to put in place a year-long support programme for the displaced and
those sheltering them, the IOM said in a statement.
"With this donation, IOM in Somalia is now able to
establish border health posts on the Somali-Kenyan and Somali-Ethiopian
borders... to service these very vulnerable migrant populations," said IOM
Somalia chief Ali Abdi.
"The current positive trends in Somalia, both the
political process and the security situation, must be seized upon now and make
us prepare, together with the Government of Somalia, the appropriate and
acceptable conditions for the long-term stabilisation of the country,"
said Etienne de Poncins, the French ambassador to Kenya, where the deal was signed.
War-torn Somalia has not had an effective central government
since the fall of President Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. However, a new
administration took office last year, ending eight years of transitional rule
by a corruption-riddled government.
In recent months, a 17 000-strong African Union force,
fighting alongside government troops and Ethiopian soldiers, have wrested a
string of key towns from the country's Islamist Shabaab insurgents.
The number of displaced people in Somalia, a country of nine
million people, is estimated at 1.5 million. A million refugees have also fled
the country.
- SAPA
