Somalia's president was hospitalized in Kenya on Tuesday with a severe cold during a time of turmoil in his war-wracked homeland, including U.N, according to AP. accusations his government is holding up emergency aid. The 73-year-old Abdullahi Yusuf, who had a liver transplant in 1996 and has suffered chronic health problems, was flown to Nairobi early Tuesday and was able to walk from the plane to a waiting car, said Ali Mohamed Sheik, a protocol officer for the Somali Embassy in Kenya. «He was walking, he was better than we expected,» Sheik told The Associated Press. «He is suffering from a severe cold but he is stable.» In Somalia, the U.N. World Food Program said the government ordered all airports and seaports in the Lower Shabelle region closed to the United Nations and international aid groups. More than 3,000 tons of WFP food aid was stranded in Merka, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
