Food aid looting kills 6 in Somalia

Date 2011/11/19 9:50:16 | Topic: Somalia

20111119
Press TV
At least six people have been killed and 25 others were wounded after Somali government forces opened fire inside a camp for famine refugees in the capital Mogadishu, Press TV reported.

Witnesses told Press TV that Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops stormed Rajo refugee camp in Wadajir district of southern Mogadishu on Thursday, and shot six people dead and wounded 25 others as they stole aid portions for famine-hit Somali families.

The assailants later fled the scene, and their whereabouts are unknown.

The injured, mostly women and children, were rushed to a medical center in southern Mogadishu to receive treatment.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on September 28 that the humanitarian situation remains "highly critical" in Somalia.

"The situation in Somalia remains highly critical. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis are still displaced from their homes in search of security and food," the ICRC said in a statement.

The Geneva-based humanitarian institution added, "Although humanitarian aid has started to reach the drought- and conflict-affected people, many are still struggling to survive."

"Much of the livestock has been decimated and there is no hope for an improvement in the situation until the next harvest in December," it added.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.




This article comes from AFRAN Study and Research Institute (Africa & Iran)
http://www.afran.ir/en

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