Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Xinhua
Somali Foreign Minister Ismael Mahmoud Hurreh has appealed to the international community to continue providing humanitarian services to Mogadishu and other areas affected by insecurity in the country.
“We appeal to the international community to continue assisting the people of Somalia. We understand the difficulty of providing the services to the people of Somalia under the circumstance and hope the situation would normalize,” said the Somali minister during a news conference in Nairobi late Tuesday.
Hurreh’s plea comes after an Italian church organization, which was providing health care services in Mogadishu, withdrew three of its remaining international staff from the country, after one of its staffers was killed in a Sunday attack in Mogadishu.
Sister Leonella Sgorbati, 66, and her bodyguard were killed by unknown assailants Sunday while working in a children’s hospital in Somalia. The gunmen managed to escape after shooting at the woman three times in the back.
Following the killing, three Italian nuns working on a voluntary basis for the international children’s welfare organization in Mogadishu were immediately evacuated from Somalia on Sunday with the help of the European Commission.
Sister Sgorbati was working as a nurse in the SOS Hospital in Mogadishu where she was responsible for the management of the nursing school.
The Somali foreign minister termed Sgorbati’s assassination as a tragic incident. “It was a tragic incident. It shows the immensity of the senselessness of the perpetrators,” Hurreh said after a meeting with Kenyan foreign affairs officials in Nairobi.
The officials met to discuss the latest attempt by unknown suicide bombers to take the life of President Abdullahi Yusuf, who narrowly escaped the attack. His armored car, which was in a convoy that was attacked, was burnt beyond recognition.
Somalia has called for an international investigation into the series of assassinations, which it says are linked to a dreaded terrorist group operating in the country.
Source: Xinhua, Sept 20, 2006
