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Somali Islamists maintain aid ban and deny famine | Somali Islamists maintain aid ban and deny famine |
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Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists have denied lifting their ban on Western aid agencies and say UN reports of famine are "sheer propaganda". | Somalia's al-Shabab Islamists have denied lifting their ban on Western aid agencies and say UN reports of famine are "sheer propaganda". |
The UN on Wednesday said that parts of Somalia were suffering a famine after the worst drought in 60 years. | The UN on Wednesday said that parts of Somalia were suffering a famine after the worst drought in 60 years. |
A spokesman for al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda and controls much of the country, accused aid groups of being political. | A spokesman for al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda and controls much of the country, accused aid groups of being political. |
Most Western aid agencies quit Somalia in 2009 following al-Shabab threats. | |
The United Nations World Food Programme was one of those banned. | |
It says it is planning to airlift food into the capital, Mogadishu, in the coming days to help the thousands of malnourished children who face starvation in the country. | |
Some 10 million people are said to need food aid across East Africa but Somalia is by far the worst affected country, as there is no national government to co-ordinate aid after two decades of fighting. | |
Blame game | |
The two districts where a famine has been declared - Bakool and Lower Shabelle - are under al-Shabab control and aid agencies have been wary of resuming activities there amid fears for the safety of their staff. | |
Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage earlier this month announced that aid agencies, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, would be allowed back into Somalia as long as they had "no hidden agenda". | |
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This had prompted the US to say it was lifting its ban on allowing its food relief into areas controlled by al-Shabab, which it calls a terrorist group. | |
However, Mr Rage told journalists in Mogadishu on Thursday night: "The agencies we banned are still banned. The agencies were involved in political activities." | |
He admitted there was a drought but said reports of a famine were "utter nonsense, 100% baseless and sheer propaganda". | |
"There is drought in Somalia and shortage of rain but it is not as bad as they put it." | |
Rashid Abdi, a Somalia analyst at the International Crisis Group think-tank, told Reuters news agency that al-Shabab were trying to avoid being "seen as people who oversaw a large-scale humanitarian disaster". | |
More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia. | |
On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said $300m (£184m) was needed in the next two months to provide an adequate response to the areas affected by famine. | |
"Children and adults are dying at an appalling rate," he said. | |
Nearly half the Somali population - 3.7 million people - were in crisis, he said, with most of them in the south. | |
These are mostly areas under al-Shabab control. |