Death threats force UNICEF out of Somali town

27 May 2005

NAIROBI, May 27 (Reuters) - Death threats have forced the United Nations children's agency to pull out of its office in a northern Somali port town considered relatively safe, UNICEF said on Friday.

The closure of the UNICEF office in Bossaso after several death threats against staff underscores the difficulty and danger faced by the handful of aid workers who venture into the anarchic country ravaged by nearly 14 years of militia fighting. The closure will harm UNICEF efforts to rebuild and improve coastal areas devastated by the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, UNICEF Somalia Representative Jesper Morch said in a statement.

Bossaso is in the semi-autonomous Puntland state, which is considered relatively safe by Somali standards and has its own government and president. But several death threats against international staff members have emerged in the past, and the most recent came earlier this month, UNICEF said.

"The threats were very specific about how, where and when the officer would be targeted," the statement said.

Plans were made to return the staff member to Bossaso after Puntland President Mohamud Muse Hirsi "Adde" gave assurances of the staffer's safety, UNICEF said.

But Adde reneged on the promises last week and said the officer was no longer welcome in Puntland, UNICEF said.

"In addition, the president told the UNICEF office how to proceed with a car rental contract and warned that government of Puntland decisions were not to be questioned," it said.

Adde could not be reached for comment.

Violence pervades lawless Somalia almost daily. At least four people were killed on Friday as militias clashed at a village in southern Somalia, residents said.

Gunmen from rival militias in the village of Haramka in Middle Jubba region, about 200 km (124 miles) south of the capital, apparently clashed over control of checkpoints where they extract money from drivers at gunpoint, residents told Reuters.

There is a bridge in Haramka that connects the town and other southern regions to the capital, Mogadishu, by way of a main road that follows the coast and is critical for transport.

It was not clear whether the victims were bystanders or members of the militia.