Faction leader calls on aid agencies

Muse Sudi Yalahow, one the Mogadishu’s main faction leaders, has called on aid agencies to resume their work in the Somali capital, Mogadishu-based HornAfrik radio reported on 21 April. On return from a meeting of opposition leaders in Baidoa, southern Somalia, Yalahow held a rally, and said aid agencies should resume their work. The Mogadishu-based faction leader said, however, that humanitarian agencies should first get permission from him, according to the HornAfrik report. The radio broadcast a recording of Muse Sudi encouraging the agencies to resume work, and promising that no force would be used against them. He said it was not his faction’s intention to abduct people, but that “any person who works with our enemies, claiming that he is their shield, I am telling you: we shall destroy that shield”. Yalahow told agencies in his speech that his faction was “the only one whom you should seek advice from”. Yalahow’s militia was reportedly responsible for the attack on the Medicins Sans Frontieres-Spain (MSF) compound in north Mogadishu on 27 March. International and local aid workers were caught up in the attack, and two UN staff were detained for eight days. MSF suspended its programme as a result of the incident. UN sources said that the issue of resuming aid operations in Mogadishu concerned UN headquarters in New York.