Attacks on aid vehicles in Somalia, Sudan

Armed militias attacked a convoy transporting food aid to southern Somalia on Wednesday, sparking a clash with men guarding the trucks in which several people reportedly died, sources said. "There was a shooting involving a transporter contracted to the WFP [United Nations World Food Programme] carrying WFP food. We are investigating to determine what exactly happened," Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the agency in Nairobi, told IRIN. There were conflicting reports of casualties with some sources in Mogadishu saying at least three people were killed and four wounded in the incident in the town of Dhobley near the Somali-Kenya border. Other sources said those killed were fewer. The clash, the sources said, occurred after the militias refused the convoy entry into the town, prompting the convoy guards to attack. Somalia has had no effective national government since 1991 when the administration led by Muhammad Siyad Barre was overthrown. In addition, five people were killed in a suspected Ugandan rebel attack on a German aid agency vehicle in south Sudan on Monday. Sources in Juba said armed men ambushed the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) vehicle 19km east of the south Sudanese capital. At least 11 people were wounded and one was missing. Unconfirmed reports blamed the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) for the attack. If true, this would prove embarrassing for the south Sudanese government, which is mediating talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government, an observer said. [UGANDA: LRA leader must be arrested, ICC insists] wm/eo