NEW YORK(Sh.M.Network)-The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the killing of an aid worker in southern Somalia, saying that “attacks on aid workers compromise the UN’s ability to maintain large-scale humanitarian operations and affect the lives of vulnerable Somalis.”
“The United Nations inSomaliacondemned the killing of an aid worker for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the south of the country on Monday,” Farhan Haq, the UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.
Yassin Mohamed Hassan, 32, was killed on Monday in Marka, a strategic town that Somali government forces backed by the African Union peacekeepers seized from radical Al-Shabaab fighters, who have contact with the al-Qaida terror network, FAO said on Tuesday.
Hassan served the FAO for more than four years, and he was part of a mission that oversees irrigation infrastructure rehabilitation in Somalia.
Since last August, 20 humanitarian workers have been killed in Somalia, the spokesman said.
“The number of Somalis receiving aid has more than doubled since famine was declared in July 2011,” Haq said. “Today, more than 1.6 million Somalis are receiving food assistance and 1.7 million people have access to clean water.”
“The UN reminds all in Somalia of the neutral and impartial nature of humanitarian action and appeals to all parties to permit aid workers to continue to safely serve all those in need in the country, wherever they are,” Haq said.
Also on Tuesday, the UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Somalia.
Source: Xinhua
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