Somalia to receive additional UN aid

The United Nations has promised more humanitarian support to war-torn Somalia.

The pledge, however, comes with the demand that the troubled government should quickly restore security and accessibility in the country.

The UN Special Humanitarian Envoy Kjell Magne Bondevik, while on a tour of Somalia on Monday, said accessing the more than 2.1 million hunger stricken people in the country posed the greatest challenge.

Bondevik told the country’s Prime Minister Prof Ali Mohamed Gedi and the speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, that there was need for the humanitarian organisations to have access to the affected people.

“The UN Family will do its best in cooperating with the Somalia government in order to help this country,” said Bondevik, a former Norwegian Prime Minister, at the UNICEF compound in Baidoa.

He added that UN would help in raising funds and awareness about the situation in the country.

The government and all other organs should do their best to provide access to provision of relief and humanitarian assistance,” said Bondevik.

Gedi, who was accompanied by Adan and other senior government officials, said the government was doing its best to bring reconciliation between warring factions in the country.

“Sustainable administration depends on good local administration,” he noted.

He said the country was using a bottom-up-approach in building the local administration.

Source: The Standard, May 3, 2006