The Al Qaeda-linked Somali rebel group of Al-Shabab on Monday announced that all international relief organizations are banned from operating in the country especially in areas under their control.

Al-Shabab spokesman in the southern Jubba regions Sheik Hassan Yaqub Ali accused the World Food Programme and other aid organizations of crippling the country’s production and economy.

“They don’t bring anything when there are severe droughts but instead they bring dirty maize and sorghum whenever rains fall and people are going to grow their farm lands ; that is unacceptable” he said

“We don’t recognize what they call as aid agencies, because the infidels are in one way coming as aid workers and in the other way they are coming as enemy soldiers and are killing our people. So we cannot allow the agencies to operate in Somalia,” he said in an interview with the Local Horn Afrik Radio in Mogadishu.

“As the Mujahideens in Somalia we cannot accept a single aid organization to operate in the country. That is our decision and we are standing firm on it,” he added.

Al-Shabab previously banned some UN and other aid agencies from operating in Somalia, accusing them of being the enemy of Islam and against the implementation of Sharia law throughout all Somalia.

Those banned agencies included the United Nations Development Programme, UN Political Office for Somalia, UN Department for Safety and Security, International Medical Corps and Care International.

More than 3.5 million Somalis need emergency food assistance, according to the United Nations.

Source: APA

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