Somalia's main rebel group announces 'ban' on food aid programme

The main rebel group fighting in Somalia, al-Shabaab, announced on Sunday that it was 'banning' distribution of aid by the United Nations' World Food Programme.

While there has been considerable focus in recent weeks on the efforts of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in feeding the people of Haiti, the work of the WFP in other parts of the world has been continuing. One of those countries where the WFP is, or has been, active is Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa which the WFP itself describes as "one of the most dangerous places in the world" and where the WFP has had staff killed as they tried to feed the millions of Somalis who need "food assistance". In January Digital Journal reported that threats by rebel groups had forced the WFP to suspend the distribution of food aid to one million people in Southern Somalia. And on Sunday the most prominent of the rebel groups fighting the government currently headed up by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, al-Shabaab, possibly ended the plans of the WFP to recommence the distribution of food in the south of Somalia in March or April. The Daily Star/AFP explains that the suspension earlier this year did actually coincide with "the post-harvest period when enough food was available". According to Islam Online al-Shabaab, reportedly in control of large parts of Central and Southern Somalia, including much of the country's capital Mogadishu, has accused the WFP of: - preventing local farmers from obtaining fair prices when selling their products - causing illness through the distribution of expired food - using its operation to support the interim government against which the likes of al-Shabaab, a militant Islamist group linked at times with al-Qaeda, and Hezb al-Islam are fighting In a statement al-Shabaab, which prior to the suspension of the WFP's food aid operation in Southern Somalia had indicated that it wanted the UN organization to pay a tax of no less than $20,000 every six months, said:

Effective as of today, all of WFP's operations inside Somalia are terminated and the organisation has been completely banned.

Given the problems caused by the food WFP distributed, the movement of Shabaab Al-Mujahideen banned the operations of the agency in Somalia generally starting from today.

The contractors working with WFP must avoid collaborating with the agency otherwise anyone working with the agency will be seen serving the interest of WFP

Asserting that the WFP is "impartial and non political" the programme's spokesman Peter Smerdon is quoted by Islam Online as saying:

WFP is determined to help the people of Somalia in need of assistance, regardless of who controls the areas in which they live, as long as it is safe for our staff to do so

He also appeared to contradict the earlier WFP claim that the suspension of operations was taking place during a period when the food supply is adequate, when he noted that it was feared members of the population in Afgoye in Southern Somalia were "going very hungry" and "are suffering even more because food assistance cannot reach them". Some 1.8 million people in Somalia, a country which has known no real stability since 1991, are currently receiving food aid. However the number requiring aid is put at between 3.6 and 3.7 million. The Voice of America says that 1.5 million people are displaced within the borders of Somalia and officially 560,000 people are refugees in Somalia's neighbors. It observes, as does Islam Online, that Somalia is suffering one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.