The World Food Program plans to resume its food aid program in southern Somalia after the militant group that controls the area lifted its ban on aid agencies there.
>> East African Drought Attracts Donors’ Attention, Prompts Somali Insurgents to Lift Aid Groups Ban
“With needs so great in southern Somalia, WFP is working with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator to explore every possibility to return – if conditions allow, and if the necessary security clearance from the United Nations is granted,” the World Food Program said in a statement dated July 13.
WFP withdrew from areas controlled by the al-Shabab militant group in southern Somalia in 2010 due to threats to the lives of its employees and the imposition of various operating conditions that include informal taxes and a ban on female WFP staff members from working in the area.
>> WFP Shuts Down Operation in Southern Somalia
Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa are experiencing the worst drought in the region in 60 years, and which the U.S. Agency for International Development said is “the most severe food security emergency in the world today.”
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