Garowe Online (Garowe)
15 November 2009
Somalia's Al-Shabaab militant group has accused United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) of distributing food in Somalia at harvesting season to undermine farmers.
Al-Shabaab's spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said the world food agency has make its norm to purposely hand out spoilt grains to the residents in an effort dishearten the hard working farmers.
"WFP distribute foodstuffs that are dirty, dry which is provided by the US. It's deliberately distributed on harvesting seasons in Somalia," he said.
"Somali farmers are facing hard time to sell their produce because WFP distributes food aid across the regions and that is demoralising."
He urged Somali people stop being dependent on assistance from UN and other international aid agency, saying it is contributing to their sufferings.
Rage's comments come after his group held meetings with farmers in the town to discuss about the problems facing Somali farmers in the country.
The group, which want to impose its own version of Islamic law across the Horn of African nation, have previously banned international aid agencies such as CARE, MSF and MercyCorps from operating in areas under its controls over espionage charges.
However, WFP is one of few aid agencies that have been allowed to operate in southern Somali regions, which is largely controlled by Al-Shabaab.
Somalia, located in Horn of Africa, has been plagued by fighting and humanitarian suffering for decades since collapse of central government in 1991 and some 3.7 million people - nearly half of the population - are in dire need of humanitarian aid assistance in the Horn of African nation.
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