Når nødhjælpsarbejdere kun kan bevæge sig i væbnede konvojer……
MANDERA/BULO HAWO, 1 August 2011 (IRIN): Mandera town, on the border between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, is the hub for aid operations in the drought-affected Mandera district in Kenya.
It could have been a possible logistics base for sending help by road to the famine-affected areas in south-central Somalia, but the security risk is high.
About four months ago, Al-Shabab militia took over Bulo Hawo on the Somali side, and continue to mount sporadic attacks in the area even though it has been retaken by the authorities.
On 27 July, the group used a mobile phone to trigger an explosion in Mandera town, killing a Kenyan police officer a few hundred metres from a UN office.
The border between Kenya and Somalia is not defined by any geographic or ethnic boundary – there are Somalis on either side. The town is the capital of Mandera district, where most NGOs and UN agencies responding to the drought are based.
An aid worker told IRIN: – We expect the attacks by the militia to increase.
Police have increasingly come under fire on either side of the border. In mid-July, bullets were flying over the two linked towns, resulting in the death of a senior police official employed by Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which now controls Bulo Hawo.
International aid workers are required to travel with armed police escorts at all times.
– The police are more vulnerable as Kenyan authorities are seen as helping to train TFG police. So Al-Shabab is trying to destabilize the area and regain control, said an aid worker.
However, Benson Leparmorijo, district commissioner of Mandera East, where Mandera town is located, preferred to call the attacks “isolated incidents”.
Opinions vary on whether the tense security situation in Mandera town and neighbouring areas could deteriorate.
Leparmorijo said the attacks would have no bearing on aid delivery: – I am talking to the TFG officials on the other side regularly… about security measures.”
Ethiopian troops, supporting the TFG, also man the border in Bulo Hawo and intervene when necessary.
Local NGOs say they are not the targets of the Al-Shabab attacks, but the authorities are, and this would not affect aid operations: – I do not think the militia want to upset the local people – they will lose any chance of gaining popular support, said an aid worker.
In recent weeks, most international aid staff have been advised not to travel to Mandera, so agencies rely mostly on national staff and local partners.
A local aid worker said the threat of being caught in the crossfire is ever-present: – With the attacks this week, I am now reluctant to go out into the field; I do not think this is good for the morale of any aid worker, local or international.
Across the border
Læs videre på http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93388
