Mogadishu - Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab on Wednesday ordered the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to stop importing food aid, claiming it is damaging Somali agriculture. Half the Somali population - almost four million people - is dependent on food aid due to combination drought, conflict and rising food prices. The WFP is one of the major providers of assistance.
"We have decided that WFP must stop deploying food into Somali territory and purchase food crops from Somali farmers, which will be distributed to the needy," al-Shabaab, which controls much of south and central Somalia, said in a statement.
Al-Shabaab said that external food aid had damaged the agricultural sector by discouraging Somalis from growing their own crops and warned all local contractors to stop working with the WFP.
"We warn all Somali business contractors who have relations with this agency to stop dealing with it by January 1 and the WFP to empty all its warehouses in Somalia by the same date," the statement said.
A WFP spokesman in Nairobi declined to respond immediately to the ultimatum.
The insurgents did not say what the consequences would be if the agency and its contractors failed to comply with the directive.
Al-Shabaab is battling the weak Western-backed government in Somalia, which has been without effective leadership since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
An estimated 19,000 civilians have died since early 2007 in the insurgency, which was prompted by neighbouring Ethiopia's invasion to kick out the Islamist regime.
