New Vision
Emmy Allio
Sunday, April 29, 2007
"Unfortunately, most humanitarian organisations have deserted this place. If the world cares about the human lives of the Somali people, the sooner they come back to Mogadishu and handle the humanitarian challenges, the better," Katumba said on satellite phone from Mogadishu, where he is visiting the Ugandan contingent under the AU peacekeeping operation AMISOM.
"Right now, they should not have any reason not to be here. The fighting has stopped. The security is OK. The seaport and the airport are getting busy again as ships and planes have started coming in. The AMISOM troops are very ready to cooperate with them to ensure that aid reaches the needy."
Like the UN, Katumba warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe as people, displaced by the violence, were pouring back into the destroyed and partly looted capital.
"Hospitals are not working. Basic facilities are lacking. People are in dire need of food, water, medicines and temporary shelter. All the problems of the world are here in this city, Mogadishu"
Katumba, who arrived in the capital on Thursday for a one-week visit, said the Ugandan contingent was trying all it could to assist the suffering population.
"Our doctors have been treating wounded civilians and malnourished children. Our team of engineers has also been called in to disable unexploded landmines and bombs, which are being reported to our unit by the community," Katumba said.
The Ugandans have also made arrangements to receive and register weapons in an attempt to voluntarily disarm the remaining insurgents.
"We agreed with the President and the Prime Minister on Saturday (on voluntary disarmament). They went on the radio that evening to call upon the fighters to surrender their guns to AMISOM. We have made provisions for that," Katumba noted.
In a bid to boost the security and start to deliver services to the suffering population, the Somali government has appointed two strongmen to top positions in Mogadishu.
Abdi Hassan Awale and Mohamed Dheere - both former warlords - take over as national police boss and mayor respectively.
"We wanted to do some reshuffling due to the factors on the ground," a spokesman for President Abdullahi Yusuf told Reuters.
"We are hoping they will both fulfil their jobs well and do something about public health," the spokesman added.
Qaybdiid was one of the last of a group of US-backed warlords to surrender to Islamists, who seized the capital last year before being ousted by allied Somali-Ethiopian troops.
Dheere was the self-appointed local governor, whose forces secured Jowhar, 90km north of Mogadishu, as a temporary base for the interim government in 2005.
Both men inherit huge challenges. While the guns largely fell silent on Friday after nine days of fierce fighting, it remained unclear whether the insurgents had been defeated or melted away to regroup.
Source: New Vision, April 29, 2007