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[NAIROBI, 20 June 2006] - The United Nations is planning to send a humanitarian mission to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to see how to best address the critical needs of civilians, a senior UN official said. However, the mission would only go to Mogadishu if there were guarantees of security on the ground, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Eric Laroche, said on Monday. The prevailing calm that has followed the end of more than four months of fighting between the Islamic courts and other faction leaders offers an opportunity to help some 295,000 internally displaced people in the city and an additional 17,000 people displaced by recent clashes, Laroche said. Priority needs were in the areas of health, water and sanitation and protection. "We will focus on scaling up existing activities, tapping on local resources and further building on positive coping mechanisms developed at the community level," he said. In Mogadishu, civil-society leaders asked for urgent assistance. "We had IDPs [internally displaced persons] in the city under the most difficult circumstances, who were displaced again. Their numbers were swelled by those displaced by the recent fighting," said Abdullahi Shirwa, head of an NGO coalition called Civil Society in Action. Mogadishu also hosts many other people who were forced to leave their homes after losing their livelihoods to the recent drought that ravaged southern Somalia. "They ended up on the streets and are in some cases the worst affected," Shirwa said, adding that food, medicine and shelter material were needed most. Shaykh Abdulkadir Ali, vice-chairman of the Union of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, appealed for external help. The courts would "try to do what they can, but the need of the population is so great that we can not do it alone," he said. "There has been a great deal of difference in terms of security," he said, adding that the courts would "guarantee the safety and security of aid workers." Mahamud Hassan Ali "Ade", mayor of Mogadishu and governor of Benadir Region (where Mogadishu is located), said aid agencies "must embark on an emergency assistance" to the residents. "People were already living in difficult circumstances, but now many whose homes were destroyed in the fighting are living in makeshift shelters or in the open." The current rains have made the situation even worse. "If something is not done quickly, there is a possibility of outbreaks of diseases such as malaria and cholera," he said. The worst-affected areas were the districts of Yaqshiid and Sii Sii, both in north Mogadishu, the epicentre of the most recent fighting in May. On Monday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the recent violence and drought had pushed many Somalis to their limit, creating the bleakest malnutrition situation in years. WFP Somalia country representative Zlatan Milisic and Christian Balslev-Olesen of UNICEF said the situation was compounded by the difficulty in reaching the 1.7 million people who needed help in the wake of the drought. "We must act now," said Balslev-Olesen. "The present calm, following weeks of fighting, offers an opportunity that the Somali and international communities must grasp to get assistance to thousands of malnourished children and their families." Fighting between Islamic courts and faction leaders belonging to an anti-terrorism alliance began in February. More than 320 people, most of them civilians, died in the clashes, and some 2,000 wounded were treated at Mogadishu's two main hospitals. In May, the Islamic courts took over control of the capital, restoring calm and sending the faction leaders fleeing. [Source: IRIN] Further information
pdf: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/4a2befdc1e95d44ebaa6422817...