UN stops Somalia food aid as gunmen seize official
Friday, 19 October 2007
MOGADISHU, Oct 18 (AP): Dozens of Somali government troops have seized a senior United Nations official in Mogadishu in the latest attack on humanitarian workers in the war-torn Horn of Africa country, prompting the UN food agency to suspend aid distribution in the capital.
Idris Osman, the head of the World Food Programme's operations in Mogadishu, was being held in a police cell last night after 50 to 60 heavily armed security officials, including men in uniform, stormed a UN compound and demanded his arrest.
The WFP was forced to suspend the distribution of food to more than 75,000 people - a programme that had only begun Monday and had been approved by the Mayor of Mogadishu.
Idris Osman, the head of the World Food Programme's operations in Mogadishu, was being held in a police cell last night after 50 to 60 heavily armed security officials, including men in uniform, stormed a UN compound and demanded his arrest.
The WFP was forced to suspend the distribution of food to more than 75,000 people - a programme that had only begun Monday and had been approved by the Mayor of Mogadishu.