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Threats Jeopardize Aid For Somalia

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The Associated Press

Published: October 4, 2008

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Help for hundreds of thousands of Somalis is in jeopardy, two Western aid groups said Friday, after Islamic insurgents forced one group to suspend some operations and threatened the other.

The past two weeks have been especially bloody, with the United Nations estimating more than 80 civilians have been killed in the capital alone. Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N. humanitarian office in Geneva, said more than 100 people were injured in the same period.

Somalia is torn between a growing Islamic insurgency and a weak and corrupt U.N.-backed government propped up by troops from neighboring Ethiopia.

In recent months the insurgents have mounted a series of hit-and-run attacks on several towns and now hold Somalia's third-largest city.

On Friday, a statement by insurgent spokesman Sheik Muqtar Robow accused the Western aid groups CARE and the International Medical Corps of committing "crimes against Islam and the jihad" and warned them to leave areas controlled by Islamic forces.

He did not elaborate on why the two agencies were singled out. IMC spokeswoman Margaret Aguirre said the group suspended work in southern Somalia last week when insurgents looted four IMC offices in Somalia's Bakool and Bay regions. No staff members were hurt in the attacks.

CARE said in a statement that the threat put its humanitarian operations throughout Somalia in jeopardy.

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