A United States-based aid agency, Care International, said the direct threat by a Somali military group has put at risk the lives of one million people who need humanitarian aid.
A statement from the organization received here Monday said the public threat delivered through a media statement on Thursday by the spokesperson of a local militia group is also threatening CARE's humanitarian operations throughout Somalia.
"We take security threats of this nature very seriously," said David Gilmour, Country Director for CARE Somalia.
"The safety of our staff is paramount to our operations. These kinds of targeted and public threats ultimately force us to choose between the safety of our colleagues on the ground and our commitment to deliver aid to hundred of thousands of Somalis who are in desperate need of assistance."
Last week, the Islamist insurgents controlling much parts of southern Somalia have warned foreign charities working there not to meddle in their affairs, sparking fears of increasingly hardline rule.
As when they ruled south Somalia for six months in 2006, residents say the Islamists are again providing much-needed security but also imposing fundamentalist practices in areas they have re-taken this year.
"We warn International Medical Corps and Care International operating in areas under our control not to interfere as they have done before," Sheikh Muktar Robow Abumansoor, the spokesman of Al-Shabaab Islamic movement was quoted as saying.
The situation in Somalia is extremely tense, with dozens of civilian casualties every week, periodic abductions and killings of aid workers. Since the beginning of 2008, at least 24 relief workers have lost their lives, while 10 remain hostages.
Two of the abducted people are CARE staff. The United Nations estimates that 3.2 million people, 40 percent of the total Somali population, are currently in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
This is due to a combination of factors including prolonged conflict, rising global food and fuel prices, as well as spiraling hyper inflation.
CARE has worked in Somalia since 1981, and today is one of the largest international humanitarian organizations in the country.
Emergency interventions in Somalia include lifesaving activities such as the delivery of food, water and sanitation to approximately 1 million people.
Source:Xinhua
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