Aid agencies make case for special access after Kenyan flight ban

Relief agencies on Thursday handed a collaborative petition to the Kenyan government to allow special access for humanitarian flights in light of President Daniel arap Moi's announcement on Wednesday that Kenya's closure of its borders with Somalia extended to a ban on all flights in and out of the country. Moi, who announced last Sunday that Kenya was closing its border with Somalia in an effort to curb smuggling and the influx of illegal arms into Kenya, said in a speech on Wednesday that the ban applied to "all air flights", including humanitarian aid flights, Reuters news agency reported on Thursday. Kenyan television later reported that the Office of the President had clarified that the ban would take effect from 1 September, but that some flights - understood to be humanitarian - would be allowed to continue to avoid a complete disruption of particular activities. Wednesday's announcement of the total flight ban, after which aid agencies failed to get clearance for at least one planned flight from Kenya to Somalia on Thursday, took the humanitarian community by surprise and topped the agenda at a scheduled meeting of the Somalia Aid Coordination Body - an umbrella group comprising donors, UN agencies and international NGOs - on Thursday morning. The ban, should it continue, would have a major effect on humanitarian operations in Somalia - many of which are run from Nairobi, given the enormous security and administrative problems in Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government since 1991 - by severely restricting the movement of personnel and their ability to work in Somalia, according to humanitarian sources. The European Community Humanitarian Office normally runs an average 13 'ECHO' flights a week from Kenya to Somalia: eight from Nairobi and five from Mandera in the northeast. The UN Coordinated Air Service (UNCAS) also runs an average seven flights from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) three flights from Wilson Airport, Nairobi - from which many of the smaller operations considered to be the target of the ban also operate. After an urgent meeting on Thursday afternoon of the European Community (EC), UN, SACB and partner agencies, EC Counsellor Duarte de Carvalho told IRIN that the humanitarian community understood and appreciated the Kenyan government's security concerns, and was optimistic that a procedural arrangement could be reached under which humanitarian flights to Somalia could be regulated and cleared. A document was submitted to the ministry of foreign affairs on Thursday evening outlining the conditions under which humanitarian flights already operate. It requested leave for a special, immediate flight to get out of Somalia those aid workers who might be otherwise stranded there, given the short notice of the ban, a UN spokesman told IRIN on Friday. The document also proposed a regularised set of procedures under which humanitarian flights could be scheduled for up to three months in advance, with some measure of flexibility to cover medical evacuations, hazardous security situations and other special needs as they arose. The humanitarian community had two main concerns over the flight ban, according to a senior official who spoke to IRIN: that the interim period before a regularised system is put in place should not be too long, and that there would be flexibility to allow the necessary responsiveness to emergency needs, such as medivacs and security-related personnel withdrawals. Informed sources were on Friday confident that the temporary ban on humanitarian flights was "a procedural glitch" arising out of the government's intention to clamp down on irresponsible operators flying in and out of Somalia, and that the situation would be quickly resolved. In addition to aid personnel "caught short" by the ban, more than 100 Kenyan businessmen were reported to be stranded in Somalia following the border closure, Pan African News Agency reported. District officers in all eight administrative divisions in northeastern province bordering Somalia have been directed to compile a list of the stranded Kenyans and identify the merchandise in their possession, it added. The SACB had just last week recommended, given indications of improved security, the resumed deployment of expatriate humanitarian staff in Lower Shabelle Region. That decision arose after a review of a letter from the Merka Council of Educated and Cadres. However, it also recommended that such presence be carefully reintroduced and that "caution be exercised until the partners assess the situation on the ground" and deem it acceptable. The SACB would keep the situation in Lower Shabelle under constant review, the statement said, urging meanwhile that all responsible community representatives and local authorities ensured full security for international organisations working in the region.