The transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia said it asked the United Nations food agency WFP to handout thousands of tons of food held in stores in Mogadishu to the needy people in the city, top government official told reporters Sunday.
The deputy prime minister and minister for fishery and marine resources Prof Abdurahman Hajji Aden Ibbi said that he met with some WFP representatives late Wednesday and was told that the Somali government wants the food to be suddenly distributed to the vulnerable people.
“The food has long been held in WFP warehouses in Mogadishu and is going to be expired while people are extremely in need of food assistance so that is why we told the UN food agency to hand it out” Prof Ibbi said during his Sunday’s press conference in Mogadishu.
Early this year the UN food agency stopped its relief operations in south-central Somalia after Al shabab militants banned it from operating in areas under their control and that is why he agency was not capable of reaching to millions of needy people in Somalia.
The militants also threatened to kill any one seen working with WFP saying that the agency brings its food assistance when rains fall and farmers grow their farms, accusing it of wanting to cripple Somalia’s economy.
Most of the needy Somalis live in the southern regions, those include about 1.5 million people who displaced their homes in the restive capital and live in the outskirts of the city where the militants control.
However it is unclear how the Somali government and WFP will be able to reach to those vulnerable IDPs in the militant-administered regions.
The United Nations is saying that because of poverty, civil wars and severe draughts, at least 3.5 million people, nearly half of Somalia’s total people need an emergency humanitarian assistance and if not a humanitarian disaster is imminent to hit Somalia.
