About 20,000 Mogadishu residents from Somalia are displaced every month and attacks, robbery and looting of relief supplies are putting humanitarian workers in difficult working conditions, the United Nations said on Wednesday United Nations spokesperson Michele Montas said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is seeing worsening conditions in the country. “Responding to the joint statement by 39 humanitarian agencies working in Somalia, in which they warned of an impending catastrophe, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) believes that the humanitarian situation in the country is deteriorating,” Montas told the press. Violence in the country stems in part from opposition groups within Somalia, who say they will not stop fighting the Somali government until Ethiopian troops are withdrawn from the country. Opposing groups in Somalia include the UN-recognized Somali Transitional Federal Parliament, the Islamic Courts Union, and several clan-based groups. “Since 1991, the conflict in Somalia has caused thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring countries, including Kenya, Yemen, Djibouti and Ethiopia, and created diaspora groups in a number of countries,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said in his 21 March 2008 report to the Security Council on Somalia. “OCHA agrees with the agencies that Somalia's situation is precarious, deteriorating and in urgent need of international attention,” Montas added. “It says that the prevailing violence and impunity in Somalia are unacceptable and cannot be allowed to persist,” she said. “While the UN has the personnel and resources to help the people of Somalia, UN workers often cannot gain access to those in need because the parties and the violence restrict their movement,” Montas said. “OCHA calls on the parties to remove roadblocks, ease restrictions on humanitarian agencies and ensure the protection of all civilians,” Montas added.
