MOGADISHU, Somalia — African Union and Somali forces traded barrages of fire with militants at a new frontline in Mogadishu on Friday, as African Union forces gained territory. The country’s president appealed for more international aid, saying the government can’t feed all the overwhelming number of Somalis suffering from famine.
The African Union military force fears that al-Shabab militants might try to attack the camps that house tens of thousands of famine refugees in the Somali capital, disrupting the distribution of food aid. A new offensive to push the militant frontline farther back from the camps began Thursday.
A battlefield commander, Col. Paul Lokech, told The Associated Press on a visit near the frontline Friday that a Pakistani fighter was commanding the al-Shabab troops battling his forces nearby, and that the militants were “active.”
The African Union and Somali troops have been fighting a concerted offensive against al-Shabab all year and have gained a large swath of new territory in Mogadishu. But the fight took on a new importance in recent days as tens of thousands of famine refugees began squatting in squalid, hunger-filled refugee camps here.
President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said Friday that his government has created several refugee camps but that his country needs urgent support because it can’t support the level of aid that is needed.
A government spokesman went even further, saying the famine response from aid agencies “is too slow” and that the crisis is even more severe than the U.N. has said. Abdirahman Omar Osman noted that diseases, including measles, are spreading through the camps.
“The current famine situation in Somalia actually demands urgency, not only assessments and far-off responses, because many Somali children are dying in the county on a daily basis for lack of help,” Osman said. “We are asking the international community to increase their efforts and help these people facing misery.”
The drought and the famine it’s caused in Somalia have affected more than 11 million people, including 2.2 million Somalis who live in al-Shabab-controlled territory in south-central Somalia, where aid groups can’t deliver food. Thousands are crammed into squalid refugee camps in the capital.
Though the masses arrived in hopes of finding food, many are not yet being fed, leading to an untold number of deaths in the camps.
A second U.N. plane landed in Mogadishu on Friday with more than 20 tons of nutritional supplements on board. A Kuwait air force transport plane also landed in the capital and offloaded sacks of food.
The World Food Program said with its second delivery Friday it has airlifted nearly 31 tons of ready-to- use food into Mogadishu. A WFP plane with 10 tons of peanut butter landed Wednesday in Mogadishu, the first of several planned airlifts in coming weeks.
WFP says it is supplying a hot meal to 85,000 people daily at 20 feeding centers in Mogadishu, but many refugees can’t find the feeding sites or don’t know about them.
The African Union offensive that began Thursday has seen troops move up the east side of Mogadishu’s largest market — Bakara. The troops now control three sides of the market — the west, south and east.
Obama urges response
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said that the famine developing in eastern Africa needs an international response and that African nations must help figure out how to keep tens of thousands of people from starving.
Obama met at the White House on Friday with the presidents of four African countries: Guinea, Benin, Niger and Ivory Coast.
Addressing reporters afterward, he said the looming humanitarian crisis hasn’t gotten the attention from the U.S. that it deserves.
The U.N. and the World Food Program delivered more than 50 tons of ready-to-use food and nutritional supplements to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, on Friday. The Associated Press
