“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the forceful and illegal entry of Government security forces into the United Nations compound in Mogadishu, and the detention of a United Nations official” — the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Somalia — a deputy UN spokesperson told journalists at UNHQ/NY on Wednesday.
She added that SG BAN “calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the staff member”, and “reminds the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia of its obligation to protect all United Nations staff members and property –today’s actions are in flagrant violation of the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunity to which the Somali government formally committed in the January 2006 agreement”.
The deputy spokesperson reported that, according to the WFP, “the incident happened on Wednesay morning at 8.15 local time: between 50 and 60 armed members of the Somali National Security Service entered the UN compound in an unauthorized manner, over the protests of UN staff members. No shots were fired, but WFP’s Officer-in-Charge was taken away at gunpoint. He is now being held in a cell at Somali National Security Service headquarters near the presidential palace, according to the World Food Programme”.
The deputy spokesperson added that “In light of this detention and the need to safeguard its staff, WFP says it has been forced to immediately suspend a food distribution programme that began in Mogadishu on Monday. The programme –- aimed at providing food to more than 75,000 people through local mosques –- was WFP’s first distribution in the Somali capital since June”.
The Agence France Press reported Wednesday that “The WFP spokesman in the Kenyan capital [Nairobi] confirmed the incident, which came hours after Somali forces battled insurgents in overnight artillery duels that left four civilians dead and at least 34 others wounded. ‘Mr. Idris Osman, officer in charge of WFP Mogadishu, was detained this morning and we are urgently taking up the matter with the authorities’, [WFP] spokesman Peter Smerdon told AFP in Nairobi”.
AFP added that “Overnight fighting on Tuesday saw rival sides pound each other with heavy artillery mainly in southern Mogadishu but also touching northern areas. The clashes broke a week-long lull in Mogadishu battles between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents allied to an Islamist movement ousted from the country’s southern and central regions at the beginning of the year. Since then, insurgents have carried out a string of guerilla attacks, mainly in Mogadishu, targeting government officials, Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers deployed to bolster the government”.
The AFP story giving the name of the abducted WFP official, Idris Osman, and some background, is here.
The Associated Press later reported that “The detention followed some of the heaviest fighting in weeks in the capital. Overnight, at least eight civilians and one policeman died during an hours-long battle between Islamic insurgents and policemen, said residents and the police on Wednesday … WFP’s Idris Osman was being held in a cell at the National Security Service headquarters and the World Food Program has not received any explanation for the action, the agency said in a statement, adding his detention violated international law. ‘In the light of Mr. Osman’s detention and in view of WFP’s duty to safeguard its staff, WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions and the loading of WFP food from our warehouses in the Somali capital’, the statement said. No shots were fired when the officers stormed the U.N. compound in Mogadishu, the statement also said”.
AP added, in its report, that “Mogadishu has been plagued by fighting since government troops and their Ethiopian allies chased out the Council of Islamic Courts in December. For six months, the Islamic group controlled much of southern Somalia and remnants have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency. Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting this year so far. Somalia has not had a functioning governments since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other”.
The AP report that Osman was being held “in a cell at the National Security Service headquarters” is posted here.