Frigate Canada to escort food aid to Somalia

  1. Posted on Friday 8 August 2008 - 15:12
    deodatus
    deofuga@yahoo.com
    Deodatus Mfugale, AfricaNews Reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    Following frequent hijacking of ships carrying food aid to Somalia by pirates, the government of Canada has decided to deploy a frigate to escort World Food Programme (WFP) ships carrying aid supplies.
    Ethiopia foodsupport. Photo: Rob Oudshoorn. Photo: Rob Oudshoorn
    Canadian Defence Minister Peter Gordon Mackay said in a statement on Wednesday that food supplies are urgently needed in Somalia but deteriorating security has made delivery difficult by land and sea.

    "Canada is stepping in to arrest the situation by deploying a frigate, Ville de Quebec, which will escort World Food Programme ships to ensure their safe arrival at designated ports," he said.

    However the operation will only begin after it (Canada) gets formal approval from the interim government in Somali to escort the WFP vessels into the Horn of Africa nation's territorial waters.

    The United Nations has warned that food supplies to Somali could soon not be delivered as very few vessels were willing to risk entering the country's pirate-infested waters.

    On its part WFP has called on governments to provide naval escorts, saying that it had received no offers of naval protection since late June, when a Dutch frigate escorted a WFP vessel safely into the capital Mogadishu. France and Denmark had also previously provided escorts.

    Commenting on the situation, WFP Country Director for Somalia, Peter Goossens, said that more food is needed now for a growing number of hungry Somalis, hence the need to provide ships with escort to make sure that food supplies reach the country. Most of the food aid to Somalia is delivered by sea but pirates have attacked at least 26 ships off Somalia coast this year, compared to 31 attacks in the whole of 2007.

    Fighting between the interim Somali government and Islamist insurgents has triggered a humanitarian crisis that the UN say is the third worst in the world. More than a million people have been displaced by violence since early last year and they are now living as internal refugees. Their plight has been compounded by spiraling food prices and drought.

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