[allAfrica.com] [Click_to_learn_more...] Horn Relief Suspends Operations in Kismayu Amid Ongoing Insecurity Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu) NEWS 14 February 2008 Posted to the web 14 February 2008 Horn Relief, an NGO based in Nairobi dedicated to promoting sustainable peace and development in Somalia, announced yesterday that it has suspended operations in the city of Kismayu due to a current prevalence of instability in the Lower Jubba region. Other aid agencies, most notably MSF, have reduced operational capacity or withdrawn personnel from Somalia in recent weeks. The medical relief agency said it was suspending all international staff presence across the country, a day after a team of its workers -- one Frenchman, one Somali, and a Kenyan surgeon -- were killed by a roadside bomb. Mr. Abdullahi Ali Igal, an official with Horn Relief, told Shabelle that Horn Relief has halted its humanitarian projects in the Kismayo because of the concerns related to the deepening threat of an already volatile security situation. He further added that Horn Relief's decision to withdrawal their staff from Kismayo comes in a show of solidarity with MSF Holland.Mr. Igal was unable to give a timeframe in which his staff might return to Kismaayo and acknowledged the fact that many people in dire need will be greatly affected by Horn Relief's and MSF's respective departures. Overall, in Somalia, NGOs have struggled to gain footing and the task ahead is daunting as much of the nation lacks affordable housing, transport, schools, healthcare facilities, and job opportunities. Despite recent French naval escorts of the WFP's food aide shipments and movements against piracy by the armed forces of several nations, the humanitarian situation on the ground in Somalia is deteriorating rapidly. Meanwhile, an estimated two million Somalis are in need of urgent aid and there are approximately one million total IDPs throughout the country. "Roadblocks, shelling and attacks in the capital Mogadishu, along with rising threats against and targeting of aid workers, have severely limited the humanitarian community's ability to operate", according to an OCHA report issued last Tuesday. Not to be rendered silent, MSF is working overtime in hospitals and refugee camps in eastern Kenya, it has also established mobile clinics at several well-trafficked arrival points along the Yemeni coast where influx of Somali refugees are living. ======================================================================================== Copyright © 2008 Shabelle Media Network. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ======================================================================================== [images//media.fastclick.net/w/ get.media?sid=7943&m=1&tp=1&d=s&c=1&f=b&v=1.4]