Rebels looted supplies from agency offices in southern and central areas at a time when a quarter of a million Somalis face starvation and Kenyan, Somali and Ethiopian forces are fighting the Al-Qaeda-inspired group.
Al-Shabab, which controls large areas of the anarchic country, said it had "decided to permanently revoke the permissions of the following organizations to operate inside Somalia."
These included 16 agencies like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Norwegian and Danish Refugee Councils. However, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres escaped the ban.
The rebels, which are hostile to Western intervention, banned food aid last year in the areas they controlled and kicked many groups out, saying aid created dependency. They lifted the ban in July when the food crisis hit critical levels, only to reimpose it later.
