The United Nations will continue to distribute relief food to the Somali populations living in government-controlled areas as well as those living in areas controlled by the Al Shabaab fighters, a senior UN aid official said. UN Resident Representative Aeneas Chuma said the UN would not take sides in Somalia while dealing with the country’s humanitarian crisis. “The UN will try to provide assistance to people in need, whether they are under government-controlled areas in Mogadishu or elsewhere in Somalia or in Al Shabaab-controlled territories,” Chuma said in Nairobi

The UN official, who was denying reports that most UN relief operations were benefiting mostly Somali extremists who had flocked to camps, said the distribution of food would not be varied in favour of either side in the Somali conflict.

Somalia’s Al Shabaab fighters expelled UN aid agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP), from carrying out operations in areas under its control.

WFP Acting Country Director Pippa Bradford, said UN had not delivered food aid to Somalia for sometime.

“We monitor food distributions to avoid diversion of relief food,” Bradford said, as she also denied recent reports of aid diversion in Somalia.

An Al Shabaab spokesman last Wednesday denied that famine was ravaging Somalia, calling UN’s declaration of a national famine disaster “sheer propaganda”.

Aid officials said in Nairobi Tuesday that discussions were underway between the governments of Kenya and Somalia and the UN agencies operating in both countries to coordinate their actions to fight the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.

“We do have the operational capacity to respond. The operation is to save life and save livelihoods. The early recovery from the famine is important. You cannot prevent drought but you can take steps to mitigate the drought effects,” said Olivia Yambi, the Country Director for UNICEF in Kenya.

Yambi said all efforts were being exerted to deal with the crisis facing both Kenyan and Somali refugees from across the border, adding “the death of a single person due to hunger is totally unacceptable.”

UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative Elike Segbor said there were no immediate figures about the deaths of Somali refugees at the camp in Kenya.

Segbor said there has been a four-fold increase in the number of deaths in camp.

“The people are coming to camps when they are already too weak,” Segbor said.

Pana 28/07/2011