UN: aid to Somalia should tackle development needs

NAIROBI, July 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior United Nations official said with insecurity still prevailing in parts of Somalia, emergency assistance to the Horn of Africa country must be provided with a view to promoting long-term development.

UN Resident Coordinator for Somalia Maxwell Gaylard said in a press release issued here Wednesday that while there were areas ofrelative stability in the country, including Somaliland in the northwest, much of the territory remains extremely volatile.

The capital Mogadishu has functioning schools and factories, "but in the streets, it's another story: too many young men with guns, too many militias, and too much potential conflict and tension," he said.

He described Somalia's social indicators on health and education as "abysmal," noting that only one-fifth of all primary school children aged 6 to 13 were in school, with even fewer attending at the secondary level. Just a "tiny fraction" of all Somalis go to college, he said.

Gaylard, who also serves as the humanitarian coordinator, said UN humanitarian activities are aimed at promoting development and rehabilitation in the strife-torn country.

The United Nations had an advanced police training program in Somaliland which will soon be expanded to Puntland with the aim oftraining officers who can someday "easily unite as one police force," he said.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but is not internationally recognised despite working hard to earn a reputation as a safe haven in the war-torn region.

Other achievements include the absence of polio virus over the past two years, he said, predicting that "in another six months orso, we might be in the very happy position of declaring Somalia tobe another stage towards polio eradication."

Gaylard also stressed the need to address environmental challenges facing Somalia.

Drought has devastated the lives of Somali nomads and farmers, who have lost the majority of their livestock.

"Whether they will ever be able to go back to the land and be on their feet is doubtful," he said, adding that the United Nations is helping the Somalis to ensure that livestock are healthy enough for consumption and export.

There has been no national governing authority in Somalia since1991 when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted. Then followed 13years of factional bloodletting that turned Somalia into the archetypal "failed state" and prompted botched military and humanitarian intervention by the United Nations and the United States in the early 1990s.