The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard, has condemned the recent killings of women and children in the south, a statement said.
He said that during a visit last week to the southwestern villages of Hudur and Wajid villages, UN officials had received confirmation of several such incidents, including the killing of ten women in December 2003 near the town of Baidoa.
“This is a very disturbing trend and one that has shocked the communities themselves for both the unusual brutality of the killings and the intentional targeting of women and children,” said Gaylard.
The atrocity was reportedly committed by a militia group of one of the two major sub-clans of the area, apparently in revenge for earlier killings. The statement said that other incidents of abduction and rape of women and children had also been reported to the UN and local human rights organizations.
Fighting between factions of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA), which controls the Bay and Bakol regions, has been going on since July 2002, when a power struggle erupted between the RRA chairman, Hasan Muhammad Shatigadud, and his two deputies, Sheikh Adan Madobe and Muhammad Habsade.
Traditional elders who were trying to broker a peace deal have reportedly negotiated a cease-fire. Gaylard called on Somali leaders to take all possible steps to end the cycle of violence, and in particular to safeguard the security and welfare of unarmed civilians, including women and children, and to bring to law those who had committed crimes against unarmed civilians.
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A Mogadishu-based television and radio station has launched a new satellite television. The Somali Television Network (STN) is a private broadcasting company, and is one of the independent mass media, which had been established since the collapse of Somali government in 1991. No media organization was allowed to operate in Somalia at the time of the military regime led by dictator Muhammad Siad Barre.
The network said the television broadcast covers Europe, Middle East and North Africa, at the initial stage, adding that the STN, which currently broadcasts in Somali language only, will be introducing shortly afterward foreign language services such as English, Arabic, Amharic and Swahili radio and television broadcasting.
STN is the first network in Somali history to provide a 24-hour broadcast worldwide of television and radio programs via satellite. Its programs also included live news reporting, analysis, business, music, culture and sports. The STN bridges the gap between the Somali communities back home and those living in the diaspora, it also acts as a link between the different generations, the network said.
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A massive clean-up operation has been launched in Mogadishu, HornAfrik radio said. The three-day operation was aimed not only at improving the beauty of the capital city but also to enhance the hygienic standards of the city’s residents.
Civil society groups, local non-governmental organizations and a large number of people have taken part in the clean-up drive.
