20100409 AFRICA NEWS
Islamist hardliners in Somalia have taken over a United Nations compound in southern Somalia, reports said on Thursday. journalists_released_in_somalia_jan09_photo_Mohammed_Odowaa Al-Qaeda linked group of Al-Shabaab disarmed guards of the UN agencies' compound in Wajid, some 400km south-west of the lawless and war-torn capital, Mogadishu. However, the World Food Programme said the compound was empty and the action would not affect its operations.
But reports said Al-shabaab looted computers from the WFP offices and seized control of the nearby airstrip.
Somali Islamist group Al-shabaab has ordered the WFP to stop importing relief items into Somalia and accused the aid agency of destroying local agriculture last year.
The fighting in Somalia has killed over 19,000 Somalis since 2007 and 1.5 million people displaced inside the country while another 560,000 civilians have registered as refugees in neighbouring countries.
|