Over One Million People in Somalia Goes Hungry

Recent attacks from militant groups have made it almost impracticable for the World Food Program to get food to hungry people in southern Somalia, the aid agency said Tuesday.

The actions by militant groups have lead to an incomplete suspension food distribution in much of southern Somalia, the agency said in a statement. This has left more than 1 million people in the area in peril, the United Nations food agency said.

The World Food Program is extremely concerned about rising hunger and suffering among the most vulnerable due to these inhumane attacks on purely caring operations, the agency said in a statement.

One of the main threats to the food agency occurred in late November when Islamist militants in Somalia advised the agency to buy food from Somali farmers or stop sending aid to the poor African country.

Actually the threat came from al-Shabaab, a group that has waged a bloody rebel against the U.N.-backed government of transitional President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

In between August 2008 and January 2009, four of the agency’s staff member was killed. Despite difficulties in southern Somalia, the agency says it is still supplying food in the capital city Mogadishu and several other areas. The agency said 60 percent of those in need or about 1.8 million people.

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