OIC calls on Somali sides to stop fighting
(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
By AGENCIES
ISTANBUL: Member states of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) gathered in Istanbul Thursday to coordinate an emergency response to the devastating drought in Somalia.
"In such a large-scale disaster, we need to join hands together and to act collectively so as to counter the spread of the calamity and to save as many lives as we possibly can," OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of Turkey told a meeting of the organization's relief aid agencies.
"For this reason, we call for the establishment of a large coalition under the banner of the OIC to address the emergency situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa in general," he added.
Nongovernmental organizations agreed at the meeting to let the OIC coordinate the humanitarian efforts of its 57 member countries.
The United Nations last week officially declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia, as the world slowly mobilized to help 12 million people battling hunger in the region's worst drought in 60 years.
Tens of thousands have died.
Turkish Muslim charity IHH said at the meeting it would send 3,000 tons of humanitarian assistance to Somalia shortly, while Saudi Arabia pledged a $60-million contribution and Kuwait another $10 million.
The OIC would start by distributing aid to some 40,000 people in the Afgooye corridor near Mogadishu under an agreement with the World Food Program, said Ihsanoglu.
More than 60,000 people were already benefiting from OIC aid.
The OIC head called on warring Somali factions "to immediately stop all hostilities during the holy month of Ramadan and to allow access to all humanitarian actors without distinction whatsoever so as to enable them to freely reach out to all the needy populations."
The OIC has a humanitarian aid office in the Somali capital Mogadishu and is one of the rare bodies allowed to operate in Somalia by Al-Shabab militants there.
"I call on the entire community of believers ... to contribute generously to the humanitarian campaign led by the OIC, especially in this month of Ramadan, a month of generosity and giving," added Ihsanoglu.
Somalia, which has suffered almost uninterrupted conflict for 20 years and become a byword for "failed state", is the nation worst affected by the drought but parts of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti are also hit.
In Mogadishu, heavy fighting erupted Thursday as African Union peacekeepers launched an offensive aimed at protecting famine relief efforts from attacks by Al-Qaeda-linked militants. At least six people died.
Al-Shabab, Somalia's dominant militant group, has sent 300 additional fighters to Mogadishu in recent days, said Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force. He said the AU force believes that Al-Shabab is trying to prevent aid from reaching the tens of thousands of famine refugees who have arrived in Mogadishu this month.
Al-Shabab militants have already killed men who tried to escape the famine with their families, saying it is better to starve than accept help from the West. The World Food Program says it cannot reach 2.2 million people in need of aid in the militant-controlled areas in southern Somalia because of insecurity.
Ankunda said that AU forces had conducted a "short tactical offensive operation" Thursday in Mogadishu. "This action will further increase security," Ankunda said in a statement.
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