Somali radicals loot UN buildings, forcing some operations to close

Al-Shabaab militiamen in southern Somalia

20 July 2009 – Somali militants raided two United Nations compounds today, stealing equipment and vehicles and forcing the world body to close down one of its operations in the violence-wracked country. Al Shabaab militiamen looted UN facilities in the towns of Baidoa and Wajid, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York, adding that the UN Office in Somalia “deeply regrets having to relocate staff and temporarily suspend its operations in Baidoa.” Ms. Okabe said that the UN will continue working in Wajid, where the minimum security measures remain intact, and it is optimistic that a reassessment of safety conditions on the ground will allow critical humanitarian work to resume in Baidoa and elsewhere in Somalia. The looting occurred as the top UN envoy to Somalia warned that extremist rebel groups are threatening to overthrow its legitimately recognized Government, while calling on the international community to intervene. “While the world focuses elsewhere, groups of foreign extremists are trying to take control of a strategically placed country,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, wrote in an opinion piece published today in The Washington Post. A fresh wave of fighting, which broke out in Mogadishu in May, has driven 200,000 people from their homes, in addition to the more than 400,000 already displaced near the capital and along the Afgooye corridor, west of Mogadishu. “Those who attacked Mogadishu in May are extremists with no common agenda except to seize power by force,” said Mr. Ould-Abdallah. “They include individuals on the UN Security Council’s list of al-Qaida and Taliban members and a few hundred experienced fighters from other areas of Africa, as well as Arabs and Asians.”..more..http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31520&Cr=somali&Cr1=