A flotilla of NATOwarships is expected soon off the Somali coast to protect ships from pirates.Some of those ships are loaded with emergency food aid for Somalia. Russia isnow asking the Somali Transitional Federal Government for permission to sendone of its ships to the area as well.
Inrelated news, officials in Somalia's Puntland region say the French Navyhas captured nine suspected pirates and handed them over to Puntlandauthorities. They say the French intercepted two small boats off the Somali coast on Wednesday. Media reportssay there were weapons found aboard the vessels.
Humanitarianagencies say they hope the naval escort duty will ensure a free flow of foodaid into Somalia and ease the humanitarian crisis. Peter Smerdon is a spokesmanfor the UN World Food Program in Nairobi. He spoke to VOA English to AfricaService reporter Joe De Capua about the naval escorts.
"Generally, we're only concerned with protectingassistance going into Somalia from piracy. So, when these various forces offerto escort humanitarian assistance into Somalia we're very pleased. So, today(Thursday), the Netherlands is taking over escorting World Food Program shipsinto Somali waters from the Canadians, who've been doing this since August aspart of a naval operation since November last year?. And we are told that NATOand the European Union may well provide frigates for similar purpose once theNetherlands's finishes up in December," he says.
With the current escort duty, the WFP has beenable to get food into the country and distributed. Smerdon says, "Basically,they escort the food into either Mogadishu or Merka. Merka's a beach port abouta hundred kilometers south of Mogadishu. We then put it in warehouses and itgoes out for monthly food distribution. But because we need to get so much foodinto Somalia at the moment, because we need to feed two-point-four million amonth, generally it doesn't sit in the warehouse for long."
A lot of food is needed before the end of theyear. "We have to move 150,000 tons of food, enough to feed one-point-fivemillion people for six months, into Somalia in the final three months of thisyear. And that's why escorts are so vital, because 90 percent of WFP food forSomalia has to come by sea," he says.
Smerdon says that while the WFP faces seriousinsecurity in Somalia, the agency has "over the last year or so built a fairlyrobust security mechanism. So, we are still able to shift large amounts of foodassistance and get it to the people in need."
The WFP spokesman says the agency needs aconstant flow of food ships to the country, but warns the agency is short ofcontributions. "We are always short. We need more assistance from donors, butwe are trying to get as many ships in as possible to reach that two-point-fourmillion mark."
Asked whether the WFP is concerned the globalfinancial crisis will affect donations, Smerdon says, "Well, it's (in the)early days yet. But we would hope there is no reduction of donations becausedefinitely this food is saving lives around the world. The world has shown thatthere's more than a trillion (US) dollars on the table to deal with the globalfinancial crisis. So we would hope the international community would stepforward and see that the two billion dollars that we need to complete our workin 2008 across the world is relatively a small amount and therefore will comeforward with it despite the pressure of the global financial crisis."