Aid workers urged to stay after suicide blast
Source: independent
Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has
appealed to aid workers not to desert the famine-ravaged nation after
militants linked to al-Qa'ida killed 70 people in a suicide bomb attack
in Mogadishu.
A truck bomb struck at the heart of the capital
on Tuesday and the Islamist group al-Shabaab warned of more "serious
blasts" at a time when aid groups are struggling to reach four million
people, most of whom live in the rebel-controlled southern and central
parts of Somalia.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed said the rebels could
not have "attacked the Somali people at a worse time", as the country
struggles with the worst drought in decades.
"The
donor community should not reduce their support to the Somali people,"
Mr Ali told journalists in the Ethiopian capital when asked if he feared
the attack might force aid workers to stay away from providing
humanitarian support. "We will make sure our security and national
police force will work harder. The TFG [Transitional Federal Government]
is committed to eliminating this threat."
Al-Shabaab
pulled most of its fighters out of Mogadishu in August after government
and African Union soldiers seized much of the capital. But the rebels
vowed to fight on.
Analysts have warned the
conflict is far from won and a shift in the insurgents' tactics could
herald a wave of al-Qa'ida-style attacks. AP
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