Somalia 
UN leaves Somalia, again

afrol News, 8 May - All efforts to free the UN staff member Professor Mohamed Ali Abokor, who was kidnapped in his home on 28 April, have proven unsuccessful. In response to the abductors' continued refusal to release him, The United Nations will stop all its activities in the Somali capital, Maxwell Gaylard, the lead UN official for Somalia, announced yesterday in Nairobi. 

In a statement he says "it is with regret that activities designed to assist all the people of Mogadishu are being suspended due to these unlawful actions by a few individuals - but this position is being taken in support of our abducted colleague and will be maintained until he is released unharmed and without preconditions."

Mr. Gaylard informs that he is particularly concerned on account of Professor Abokor suffering from a condition of high blood pressure, and is likely to be insufficiently equipped with vital medication. 

Professor Abokor is the coordinator for the UNDP Capacity Building Project in Mogadishu, one of a range of humanitarian operations mounted in the city and greater urban area by UN agencies that support governance and civil society, and include interventions in health, water and sanitation, education and teacher training. He is now being held at an unknown location.

Mr. Gaylard told the BBC's Focus on Africa that a programme to eradicate polio would be one of those hit by the decision, which, he said "had not been taken lightly". 

Mr. Abukar is the second UN official kidnapped by gunmen in Mogadishu this year. 

In February, a Somali representative of the UN children's Fund, UNICEF, was picked up by unidentified gunmen and released later. The UNICEF representative's family said it had paid no ransom, but AFP news agency quotes unnamed militia sources as saying money had changed hands before his release. "We don't negotiate and we don't pay ransoms," said Mr Gaylard. 

The UN has been in and out of the Somali capital for several years, responding to the fragile security situation in Mogadishu. The UN office in the city was recently re-opened after all UN agencies had withdrawn from Somalia in September 2001. This withdrawal had been provoked by international insurance companies' refusal to insure flights in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the US. Fears of a US attack on Somalia prolonged this decision. 

The Transitional Somali Government in town repeatedly has urged the UN to stay permanently. Since clan warfare broke out in Somalia after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Saïd Barre in 1991, security has been extremely low and only temporary in the country, especially for foreigners. Abductions have been used systematically by clan gunmen to press for ransom money. 

The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, stated that Somalia remained "one of the most dangerous environments" for the UN to operate in a recent report about the security situation in the war-raged country. "The security situation does not allow for a long-term presence," the Secretary-General concluded. 

Meanwhile, fighting is intense in several parts of the country. This weekend, several civilians were killed in Mogadishu in inter-clan fighting. Also in the autonomous region Puntland, the most serious fighting in years has been reported. Clan leader Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who claims the Puntland presidency, is reported to have taken the capital, Bossasso, today.

The UN now only is present in the self-declared state of Somaliland, where peace and stability has ruled for ten years.

By Knut Henrik Gjone, afrol News

Sources: Based on UN sources, press reports and afrol archives

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