From: Jim Rosenfield <jnr@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Date: 05 Oct 92 21:37 PDT
Subject: Re: 9/26 Wire stories on hunger
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1471700151:cdp:1471700152:000:3704
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jnr    Oct  5 21:37:00 1992


/* Written  6:47 pm  Sep 26, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
 APn  09/26 1636  Somalia-Airlift

Copyright, 1992. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By CHEGE MBITIRU

Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Relief workers took advantage of favorable
weather Saturday to fly more than 285 tons of food, agricultural seed
and other aid to the starving of Somalia.

U.S. and other cargo planes were able to land in four southcentral
towns cut off last week by seasonal rain in the normally
drought-plagued country.

"That will allow us to continue raising the food supply," said Francis
Mwanza, a spokesman for the World Food Program in Nairobi.

The seasonal rains, just now beginning, made dirt air strips too soft
for the heavy cargo planes earlier in the week and sporadically
disrupted the international airlift.

More than 100,000 people have died from hunger and civil war in the
Horn of Africa nation since rebels ousted President Mohammed Siad
Barre in January 1991.

The United Nations says 2 million more Somalis are on the brink of
starvation, and some experts estimate a half million could die by
Christmas.

The United Nations warned of an impending catastrophe in East Africa
last year, but not until this summer did governments respond to the
crisis with large-scale shipments of food and supplies.

On Saturday, American C-130 Hercules cargo planes delivered nearly 158
tons of rice, cooking oil, corn meal and cow pea seeds to Baidoa on
Saturday.

Army Lt. Col. Robert Donnelly, 43, of Suffern, N.Y., a spokesman for
the U.S. operation, said the seeds were delivered on behalf of aid
agencies trying to get Somali farmers to grow some of the food they
need.

Baidoa has been a focus of the international relief effort because of
its high death rates -- up to 400 people, mostly children, die daily.

The Americans, operating from the Kenya's Indian Ocean port of
Mombasa, also sent six flights with more than 60 tons of cow pea
seeds, rice and corn flour to Hoddur.

Donnelly said the total of about 218 tons to Baidoa and Hoddur was the
largest amount delivered to Somalia in a single day since the U.S.
airlift began a month ago. American military planes have been ferrying
supplies collected by relief agencies, and next month are to start
bringing in 160,000 tons of food from the United States.

The Canadian military, operating two C-130s, delivered 32 tons of corn
meal Saturday to Uegit, the World Food Program said. And the World
Food Program delivered nearly 18 tons of food each to Baidoa, Uegit
and nearby Sacowein aboard chartered C-130s, Mwanza said.

The Americans also flew more than 13 tons of Unimix, a high protein
mixture of corn, rice, wheat and oil, to Wajir in drought-wracked
northeastern Kenya.

Hundreds of thousands of people in camps there -- including more than
250,000 Somali refugees -- are largely dependent on donated food.

Looting of relief supplies, clan clashes and banditry have been the
main obstacle to feeding Somalia, now carved into fiefdoms of warring
clans.

Continuing insecurity prevented any flights to the western town of
Belet Huen, where an American plane was struck by a stray bullet eight
days earlier.

U.S. military planes have ferried 300 of 500 Pakistani soldiers being
deployed to guard relief shipments at the port and airport of the
capital, Mogadishu. The remainder are to arrive this week and are
expected to be in position in about 10 days.

The United Nations has authorized an additional 3,000 troops, but
their deployment is opposed by a powerful warlord, Gen. Mohamed Farrah
Aidid, whose militia has been accused of much of the looting. 
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