From: Jim Rosenfield <jnr@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Date: 05 Oct 92 21:35 PDT
Subject: Re: 9/22 News Stories on Hunger
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1471700135:cdp:1471700136:000:3876
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!jnr    Oct  5 21:35:00 1992


/* Written 11:19 pm  Sep 22, 1992 by jnr in cdp:hunger.general */
 
APn  09/22 1323  Somalia

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

By EDITH LEDERER

Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Banditry, rising clan tension and heavy
rain Tuesday severely crippled food airlifts to Somalia, where one aid
official estimated as many as 500,000 people could die by Christmas.

In a country devastated by drought and lawless after a civil war, food
supplies and deliveries draw bandits like magnets. Instances of
banditry and looting have increased with intensified international
efforts to address Somalia's needs.

Some aid officials estimate as much as half the 180,000 tons of food
delivered to Somalia this year has been stolen.

Banditry and heavy seasonal rain that washed out runways left airlifts
continuing only to Mogadishu, the capital, and to the small central
towns of Sacowein and Uegit on Tuesday.

The United States halted its flights to two southwestern towns --
Baidoa on Monday after clan fighting there, and flights to Belet Huen
were stopped Friday after a plane was struck by a stray bullet.

The main body of a 500-strong armed U.N. force from Pakistan began
arriving Monday, but they are charged only with preventing similar
attacks at Mogadishu's port and airport. The entire force, being
airlifted to the capital city by U.S. military planes, is expected to
arrive by Friday.

More than 100,000 people already have died from the combined effects
of drought and warfare and another 2 million are threatened.

Clan fighting, banditry and chaos have been rife in Somalia since the
January 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, with at least a
score of relief workers killed and wounded trying to alleviate the
nation's suffering.

Briton Stephen Tomlin, 39, who heads the Los Angeles-based
International Medical Corps in Mogadishu, estimated as many as 500,000
Somalis could die in the next three months.

"The only restraint to humanitarian assistance is security," he said.
"The resources are in place to help these people."

Although the two major factions agreed to a cease-fire in May, clan
fighting in Mogadishu's south six weeks ago forced the British charity
Save the Children Fund to shut down two clinics caring for 2,600
Somali women and children.

Tomlin said that in the countryside, there had been a "complete
breakdown of law and order. I think it's getting worse."

International Medical Corps personnel were among the approximately 15
expatriate aid workers and their numerous Somali assistants who had to
take cover Monday in the western town of Belet Huen when bandits
looted Red Cross warehouses.

No one was hurt in the incident, but the International Committee of
the Red Cross' entire stock of abouy 870 tons of food was stolen,
leaving its feeding kitchens without reserves.

With food stocks gone and no new deliveries being made since the U.S.
airlift halted Friday, the lives of tens of thousands of people being
cared for by the Red Cross are imperiled, said spokeswoman Catherine
Cazeaux.

On Monday, shooting erupted in Baidoa, 150 miles northwest of
Mogadishu, when bandits attacked a U.N. World Food Program truck
convoy carrying 330 tons of sorghum.

The incident forced the suspension of the American airlift of food for
the Red Cross and the World Food Program, and an airlift by the
Lutheran World Federation for Catholic Relief Services and World
Vision.

Hundreds are dying daily in Baidoa and it has been a central focus of
relief efforts.

Heavy rain in southern Somalia has washed out several runways, halting
Canadian and German airlifts to the town of Bardera and curtailing
American airlifts to the town of Hoddur, said Brenda Barton of the
U.N. World Food Program. 
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Used with permission of Associated Press.