/ 12 July 2008

Aid worker sprayed with bullets in Somali capital

Gunmen killed an aid worker in the Somali capital on Friday, the latest such attack against humanitarian staff in the conflict-torn African nation, a colleague said.

Mohamed Muhamoud Keyre, the deputy head of Mogadishu-based, German-funded Daryeel Bulsho Guud (DBG), died instantly after gunmen sprayed him with bullets in the south of the seaside capital.

”We are not sure why and how this incident happened, but Keyre was gunned down by armed men,” said a colleague on condition of anonymity.

Earlier on Friday, Ali Bashi, who heads Mogadishu-based charity group Sorda, suffered serious gunshot wounds after he was attacked while distributing food to internally displaced people, a United Nations official said.

”They [gunmen] seriously wounded him in Taredishe camp, 13km south of Mogadishu, where he was distributing food to IDPs,” said the official, adding that Sorda partners with the World Food Programme (WFP) in distributing relief.

A colleague, Mohamed Adan Terey, said Bashi had been rushed to hospital after being shot several times in the chest.

Meanwhile, other gunmen shot and killed a WFP-contracted driver in the country’s southern region, the fourth to be slain this year while delivering food in the lawless nation.

Ahmed Saali was shot when fighting broke out on Monday between convoy escorts and militiamen at a checkpoint in Lower Shabelle region, the agency said in a statement.

”WFP food is reaching many people but our drivers are daily risking their lives to deliver it,” said Peter Goossens, WFP director for Somalia. ”We send our condolences to the family of Ahmed Saalim and appeal for these killings to stop,” he added.

UN officials have appealed to the Somali government and Islamist militants, who are fighting for the control of the country, to spare aid workers, many of whom have been killed or kidnapped in recent months.

Aid groups have scaled down operations in Somalia owing to increased insecurity, largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces in early 2007.

The African Union mission to Somalia has deployed 2 600 peacekeepers in Somalia — well short of a promised 8 000 troops. So far it has failed to stem the violence.

On June 9, the rival Somali sides signed a truce agreement at UN-mediated talks in Djibouti.

The deal gave both sides one month to implement a cessation of hostilities but it was opposed by Islamist hard-liners who have continued their struggle, insisting that an Ethiopian withdrawal was a precondition to talks.

Mediators are currently toiling to bring the Islamist elements into the truce with analysts warning that their absence would render the armistice useless. — Sapa-AFP