Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Its relief ship barred from capital, Red Cross cuts food aid Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 15:07:21 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Its relief ship barred from capital, Red Cross cuts food aid to Somalis \BY Thomas Wagner \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT MOGADISHU, Somalia MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ladan Mohammed Nur, blind and pregnant, nearly burst into tears yesterday when the relief agency that saved her life six months ago cut her rations to one meal a day. The 19-year-old woman is one of a half-million hungry Somalis in Mogadishu who depend on the International Committee of the Red Cross for her survival. On Saturday, relief workers and U.N. officials failed to persuade Mohammed Ali Mahdi, the warlord who controls northern Mogadishu, and Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, the clan leader in the capital's south, to open the port to relief ships. The Red Cross said it was forced not only to cut the number of meals it serves each day from two to one, but also to slice the calories of each meal from 1,200 to 600. For more than a week, a Red Cross ship carrying 12,000 tons of food, a World Food Program vessel with 10,000 tons and a ship carrying supplies for the U.N. troops have been waiting to enter the port. "The port is closed. We have no idea when it will reopen," Red Cross spokesman Horst Hamborg said yesterday. "There was enough food in the pipeline, but we just can't bring it in." That means many survivors of the fighting and famine that have killed at least 300,000 Somalis will consume one-fourth the calories that people in such developed countries as the United States consume daily. An additional 2 million Somalis are in danger of starvation. In the southern city of Kifmayu, clan leaders have also prevented relief ships from using the port, forcing the Red Cross to feed people only once a day. "We might starve, and I'm worried about my baby," Mrs. Nur said after eating a bowl of rice and beans. "If I get malnourished, my child will be born weak." In May, when warfare killed many members of her family in the city of Bardera, Mrs. Nur, who was born blind, walked 300 miles to reach Mogadishu with her husband and other members of her clan. A Red Cross kitchen saved Mrs. Nur from starvation, then found housing for her in an abandoned building after her depressed husband left her. Somalia has descended into chaos since clan warfare broke out in January 1991. Relief agencies have helped many Somalis survive the violence and the drought, and 500 U.N. soldiers deployed in Mogadishu have taken control of the airport, a main conduit for relief supplies. But more aid is needed, and the peacekeepers cannot prevent clansmen from blocking the port, attacking truck convoys of food and threatening the lives of relief workers. Even though they ride in cars guarded by riflemen, many relief workers are afraid of the clan warlords struggling to control Somalia. Stephen Tomlin of London, the director of the International Medical Corps, said U.N. soldiers should be allowed freer use of their weapons. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM