Six Killed in Somalia as Militants Seeks to Block Flow of Food and Aid

The struggle to deliver desperately needed aid to famine-stricken Somalians has resulted the killing of at least six people in the capital city of Mogadishu.

According to reports, heavy fighting erupted between Somali militants and African Union (Au) peacekeepers/government forces.

Insurgents from al-Shabab, an Islamist terrorist group that is linked to al-Qaeda, have banned food and aid assistance from the UN.

The fighting occurred one day after the United Nations World Food Program transported fourteen tons of food into Mogadishu.

Somalis are facing the triple threat of famine, drought and terrorism.

Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for AU peacekeepers, Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Ankunda, said his forces are committed to move help vital supplies to starving Somalis in the face of attacks by militants.

According to the UN, at least 100,000 Somalis from the rural areas have fled to Mogadishu in search of food and water. Tens of thousands others have already escaped to Kenya and Ethiopia, where their huge numbers are burdening local facilities.

UN believes that a total of 11-million people in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya) are in desperate need of emergency aid.

The World Food Program plans to airlift more food and supplies later this week to eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya.

However, the Prime Minister of Somalia Abdiweli Mohamed Ali
has alleged that the UN has not distributed all the food it has to those people in need and has stockpiled food in warehouses.

Challiss McDonough, a spokesman for the World Food Program, defended the UN:"We are distributing food in Mogadishu, we are doing it every day, we are feeding over 300,000 people in Mogadishu including feeding centers around the city."