WFP Food Aid Arrives in Somalia
Story Filed: Sunday, April 23, 2000 12:34 PM EST
MOGADISHU (April 23) XINHUA - A large convoy with 50 heavy duty trucks of 580 tons food
aid from the World Food Program successfully passed through the long closed road between
Mogadishu and Baidoa on Sunday.
The food of maize, sorghum, beans and porridge is destined for the famine stricken
families of Bay and Bakol regions.
The large food convoy was accompanied by more than 30 battle wagons and nearly 400
heavily armed militiamen.
Abukar Abdi Shireh, speaking for the businessmen delivering the food, said they have
successfully turned their responsibility of the convoy over to their representatives in
Baidoa at Qardho village, some 180 Km South of Mogadishu on the road to Baidoa.
Mogadishu-Baidoa road, the major economic links in the Horn of African country, had
been out of use because of armed confrontation and banditry ever since Baidoa has fallen
to the hands of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) in early June last year.
The mission is free from politics and it has been coordinated by the representatives of
Al-Islah and Towfiq together with their counterparts in Baidoa, said Mr Shireh.
The opening of the road has revived the moral of many businessmen and thousands of
ordinary civilians whose lives had crucially been dependent on the road.
But still, the authorities in Baidoa and Wanlewein affirm that the road would only
remain open for the humanitarian supplies.
The life has been getting difficult for the people in Bay and Bakol regions day after
day ever since the road linking them to Mogadishu shut down for the serious hostility
between the RRA and Hussein Mohamed Aidid.
Both regions depend much of their life on Mogadishu especially the food and the other
commodities. Even though it is said that the road is open for the humanitarian supplies,
still it is believed that other normal businesses would soon follow.
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