RRA withdraws staffing ultimatum

The Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), which controls much of Bay and Bakool regions in south-central Somalia, on Sunday withdrew an ultimatum it had given to UN agencies and international humanitarian NGOs that they should employ only members of the Digle and Mirifle community - and not “outside clans” - in these areas. RRA chairman Hassan Mohamed Nur said, in a letter to UN Humanitarian Coordinator Randolph Kent, that after addressing “genuine complaints” to a UN delegation in the RRA administrative centre of Baidoa, the RRA had withdrawn its ultimatum. The militia group would continue to review and explore with the humanitarian community such issues as the employment of Somali national staff, security of aid agencies’ workers and resources, humanitarian assistance and the training of the RRA’s newly-appointed administration, the RRA statement added. Meanwhile, a London-based organisation called the Rahanwein Salvation Army (RSA) has said it intends to set up a military and political base in the Bay and Bakool region, and threatened to start fighting if the RRA excluded it from participating in the affairs of the two regions, the Somali ‘Qaran’ newspaper reported.