MOGADISHU, 4 January 2005 — A team of US and German marines rescued 27 Somali victims in the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Somalia’s coastline on Dec. 26, Somali presidential spokesman Yusuf Mohamed Ismail said.
According to Mogadishu-based Shabelle radio, Ismail said that most of the victims rescued by the marines were from the Indian Ocean coastline of the northeastern region of Puntland, including Hafun town that was hardest hit by the tidal waves last week.
International aid agencies said that some 110 people were killed in Somalia when the tidal waves struck the Somali coast. More displaced people were reported in Puntland region like Hafun, Bander Beyla, Baargaal,Eyl and other areas. Ismail said that a delegation of nine Somali lawmakers was expected to undertake an assessment of the entire Somali coastline in an attempt to identify other areas in need of help.
Somalia has not had a functioning government for more than a decade. After two years of peace talks in neighboring Kenya, Somali faction leaders elected a president and a parliament. The country’s newly elected government is still based in Nairobi.
“After three days of rescue mission along the Somali coast, US and German marines have managed to rescue 27 Somalis. Both governments are also offering logistic support by distributing food aid to hundreds of the affected communities. After full consultations between the president, prime minister, and speaker of Somali Parliament, it was agreed that the MPs’ team leave Nairobi either tomorrow or Wednesday to undertake an assessment mission after which the UN agencies would make an appeal for aid for the affected communities,”Ismail was quoted as saying.
Aid agencies are expected to begin delivering on Thursday about 12 tons of food following the first aerial assessment of the whole Somali coastline.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman, Laura Melo, said that some 31 tons of food was being transported by road from the Gulf of Aden port town of Bosasso to Hafun towns.
She added that the road from Bosasso to Hafun was in very bad shape, making the journey to the affected area very slow.
“Hafun is the only place where we know about the situation,” Melo said, adding that the UN was planning an aerial assessment on Thursday to make an inventory of all the areas affected along Somalia’s coast.
WFP said it had food stocks in Puntland, which could be used for the tsunami-generated emergency.
A total of 1,000 tons of food, which was destined for drought and floods victims, is currently available in Puntland, the agency added.
