United Nations staff have returned to their offices in Somalia’s temporary seat of government in Jowhar after Somali authorities locked them out of the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) compound, a UN official in Nairobi confirmed on Tuesday.
According to a statement by the Office of the UN Residential and Humanitarian Coordinator, this follows the relocation of 13 international staff on September 8 owing to security concerns in the area. The Unicef offices were also the temporary base for other UN agencies.
Of 13 international staff, six were relocated to the relatively safe town of Wajid in south-west Somalia and seven others were flown to Nairobi while UN operations continue in Somalia.
Reports of a troops build-up to support President Abdullahi Yusuf’s decision to operate his fledgling government from Jowhar, about 90km north of Mogadishu, have raised fears of a stand-off with his rivals. Yusuf says Mogadishu is still too unsafe to install a central authority.
A powerful faction led by parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and warlords in Mogadishu are resisting Yusuf’s attempts to relocate the government, saying Mogadishu is the only recognised capital.
War-torn Somalia has had no central government since the ouster of former ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1992, and has been carved up into fiefdoms by warlords. — Sapa-DPA