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Holmes said the UN will investigate human rights abuses in Somalia. (Reuters) |
NAIROBI — The United Nations drew a bleak picture of the humanitarian situation in war-ravaged Somalia on Monday, May 14, saying the crisis was the world's worst.
"In terms of numbers and access to them, Somalia is a worse displacement crisis than Darfur or Chad or anywhere else this year," UN emergency humanitarian coordinator John Holmes told a news conference in Kenya, Reuters reported.
The UN official, who curtained a visit to Somalia over insecurity, said that more people have been displaced in the Horn of Africa country in the past two months than anywhere else in the world.
He regretted that aid workers were only reaching about a third of the thousands of civilians afflicted by the fighting.
"We estimate we are only reaching 35-40 percent of those in need ... many are already suffering from a cholera outbreak," said the UN top aid official.
He urged the West-backed interim government to lift the hurdles obstructing aid workers from meeting the needs of displaced Somalis.
More than 400,000 people have fled the ghost capital city of Mogadishu since Ethiopian troops and government forces oust of the Supreme Islamic Courts of Somalia (SICS) in December.
Warning of a health disaster, aid workers say many of the displaced are camped in the capital's outskirts without sufficient water, food and medicine.
Holmes, the highest-ranking UN official to visit Mogadishu in a decade, cut short his trip on Saturday, May 12, after bombs killed at least three people.
"I do not think you can say this is a recovering city. It is a fairly depressing prospect."
Probe
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The UN regretted aid was only reaching 35 percent of Somalis in need. (Reuters)
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The UN emergency humanitarian coordinator also announced that the UN will investigate human rights breaches that occurred during the recent warfare.
"Clearly, there were major problems, major abuses during that period," he said, adding he discussed the probe issue with Somali President Abdullah Yusuf.
"I raised the questions of detentions and disappearances of people," Holmes said.
"I raised the claims that there have been massive abuses of international law ... because civilian areas were being used and targeted in different ways."
Holmes said the Somali government denies any wrong-doing but agreed to work with investigators.
"... he accepted the idea of a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to look at the investigations and come up with a proper conclusion."
Last month the UN accused all sides in the Somalia conflict of breaking humanitarian law by indiscriminately firing on civilian areas in Mogadishu.
Some 1,600 people died during fighting between Ethiopian troops and the SICS and clans in the capital.
Somali Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid has accused the Ethiopians of committing genocide in his country.
Senior European Union security officials have also accused Ethiopian and Somali troops of committing war crimes.
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