WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-07-17 Time: 04:00:05 Posted By: Jan
By Bogonko Bosire
Nairobi – The United Nations on Tuesday issued fresh protests after gunmen killed a transport agent working for the World Food Programme in Somalia, where millions of people are on the brink of starvation.
The man, who was shot in southern Somalia on Sunday, was the fifth WFP-contracted worker to be killed in 2008 in the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.
His death brings to at least 12 the number of aid workers slain in Somalia in 2008 in what witnesses and colleagues describe as pre-meditated attacks. Some have been kidnapped and disappeared altogether in recent years.
“It is intolerable and incomprehensible that humanitarian workers striving to save lives and alleviate human suffering in one of the most difficult environments in the world are being targeted and killed,” said Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian envoy to Somalia.
“It is also very worrying that the general level of violence in large parts of Somalia has been constantly rising in 2008 and has reached unacceptable levels of civilian casualties,” he added in a statement.
WFP representative to Somalia, Peter Goossens, condemned the latest killing, which occurred when militiamen opened fire after a local dispute in the southern town of Buale.
“We condemn these shootings, and are very concerned that growing insecurity threatens to sabotage the humanitarian response in Somalia,” Goossens added.
The food agency lamented that militiamen were demanding payment from WFP trucks carrying supplies at checkpoints in the southern and central regions, where human suffering is acute.
In Mogadishu, hundreds of displaced people demonstrated outside their camps calling for an end to the killing of aid workers.
“We are desperate,” said protester Asha Elmi Farah.
“We will not let them (militiamen) jeopardise our hope.”
“We need to show our anger against the killing and kidnapping aid workers. We say down with those carrying out these attacks,” said another protester, Mohamed Said Hassan.
At least 2,6-million Somalis are facing hunger due to acute food shortages spurred by a prolonged drought, insecurity and high inflation. The UN’s famine monitors have warned that the figure could hit 3,4-million by the end of 2008.
United Nations officials have appealed to the Somali government and Islamist militants fighting for control of the country to spare aid workers, many of whom have been killed or kidnapped in recent months.
Aid groups have scaled down operations in Somalia owing to increased insecurity, largely blamed on Islamist militants who have waged a guerrilla war since they were ousted by joint Somali-Ethiopian forces in early 2007.
A desert nation of up to ten million people, Somalia has been wrecked by violence since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, sparking a bloody power struggle.
A ceasefire, which came into force on July 9, a month after it was signed at UN-mediated talks in Djibouti has repeatedly been violated, the latest being on Tuesday when Islamist attacked a Mogadishu army camp, triggering clashes that claimed four civilians.
But Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, under pressure to restore stability, on Tuesday offered to talk to anyone, even to resign, if that would bring peace to Somalia.
“I am here to serve the people and not to claim power,” Hussein said in the Kenyan capital. “That is why I am calling on all factions to come to the table and we talk peace.”
The African Union mission to Somalia has deployed 2 600 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers in Somalia – well short of a promised 8 000 troops. But since they deployed in March 2007, they have failed to stem the violence.
The UN Security Council is yet to approve the deployment of peacekeepers, 13 years since joint UN-US troops hastily pulled out, paving the way for complete lawlessness. – Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080716091103134C503917