Somali PM: Gov't will guarantee the safety of U.N. staffers

The prime minister of Somalia’s weak government, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, revealed on Wednesday that his government has created a safer zone to operate in the capital for employees of Nairobi-based United Nations organizations, saying that his government will fully guarantee their safety.“If the U.N. agencies remain in Nairobi and claim they are responsible for the humanitarian operations in Somalia that will be a great false impression to the outside world and deceive against the Somali people,” the prime minister said in an interview with state-run radio.“I am repeating my call to the U.N. humanitarian agencies in charge of Somalia who are based in Nairobi and I am telling them to relocate to the capital within 90 days or otherwise they must not claim to be responsible for the U.N. humanitarian operations in Somalia,” Mohamed emphasized.The prime minister said that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon previously urged the U.N. agencies in Nairobi to relocate to the Somali capital to continue their operations and the cabinet decision to call them following the speech by the U.N. boss.‘”If they don’t come here, we will recognize them, the U.N. agencies, that they are spending the donation that international community allocated to Somalia at Nairobi hotels and we will convey cases against them to the donor nations in the world,” the prime minister stated.He said that when it comes to security, Mogadishu is much better but not worse than Baghdad or Kabul where many U.N. and other humanitarian agencies are based.A week ago the Somali prime minister urged the U.N. agencies to move to the capital Mogadishu, although international relief workers are afraid of coming to Somalia because of the increasing threats and the ban by al Qaeda-proxy militants who prohibited many international aid organizations from operating in Somalia. AHL