SOMALIA: Famine Looms as Aid Workers Flee

By Najum Mushtaq NAIROBI, Jul 25 (IPS) - By December this year, aid agencies estimate that the number of displaced and hungry people in need of life-saving aid in Somalia will swell to 3.5 million—nearly half the country's population. Yet, as drought and conflict conspire to worsen the crisis, the humanitarian space to deliver food and other essential assistance in this conflict zone has all but vanished. "At sea, ships carrying aid face the threat of piracy, on land (aid workers face) armed robbery and kidnapping," says Abdullahi Musse, a Somali worker for an international humanitarian organisation. "Then, in the process of reaching our warehouses as well as on their way to the beneficiaries, the trucks cannot move without security escorts and have to pass through countless checkpoints which cannot be crossed without paying... [read full story]