WFP calls for safety in Somalia

2008-06-12 12:15

Nairobi - The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday called on naval powers to provide escorts to protect its aid shipments off the pirate-ridden Somali coast, warning that millions of Somalis could starve without help.

A Dutch frigate, which ensured no WFP ships had been hijacked since last November despite numerous attacks on other vessels, was due to end its tour of duty on June 25, the WFP said.

The UN Security Council recently approved incursions into Somali waters to curb piracy, which the weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, was powerless to prevent.

However, the WFP said that nobody had volunteered to escort vital food deliveries.

"Without escorts, our whole maritime supply route will be threatened," the WFP's Somalia Country Director Peter Goossens said in a statement.

"Shipping companies are reluctant to sail unescorted to Somalia, and we have no offers to take over from the Royal Netherlands Navy," he added.

Major catastrophe

Piracy was rife off the lawless Somali coast, which was close to key shipping routes. Cargo ships and luxury yachts had been targeted by the heavily- armed pirates, who then hold the crew ransom.

Agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation had said that 2.6 million Somalis, many of them displaced by fighting, were in urgent need of food aid. The number could rise to 3.5 million later this year, the WFP warned.

Goossens said: "Millions of Somalis are suffering from a combination of insecurity, drought and high food and fuel prices. If relief shipments slow down, we could face a major catastrophe."

The WFP, which was trying to scale up operations to help feed the displaced, said that 80% of its aid arrived by sea The Horn of Africa nation had been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Fighting had intensified since transitional federal government troops and their Ethiopian allies wrested control of the capital Mogadishu from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

The UIC brought relative order and curbed piracy during its six months in control in 2006.

Al-Shabaab, the UIC's armed wing, had been waging a guerrilla war ever since and hundreds of thousands had fled the vicious fighting in Modagishu to live in makeshift camps.

Sapa-dpa

- SAPA