Nairobi - SOMALIA: Aid worker killed - A CARE International employee,
engineer Sueb Mohamed Hussein was shot dead on Sunday in Balad, several
kilometres north of Mogadishu on his way to assess food-for-work projects in
the middle Shabelle region, CARE spokesperson Wendy Driscoll told IRIN on
Thursday.
"We are very sad at the loss and think that it is just another tragic
illustration of the risks relief workers face in providing assistance in
Somalia," she said.
She however said that CARE is sure this incident was "bad luck" and had
nothing to do with it as an organisation. "It was not a direct attack at
us," she clarified. "But it clearly shows how the area is a very dangerous
place to work in," Driscoll added. CARE has asked the Somalia Aid
Coordination Body (SACB) to investigate and respond to the incident.

SOMALIA: Puntland lifts ban on UN international workers
The Puntland administration has withdrawn the expulsion of three UN
international staff from the area issued in early December. This followed
negotiations between UN officials in the region and the administration, an
official from UNDP-Somalia confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. The ban had been
lifted on one of the workers only a week after it was imposed. Letters from
Puntland's "interior minister" Hassan Abshir Farah had accused the three -
Eddie Johns of UNDP/UNCTAD, Remmelt Hummeyn of UNDP and Said Al-Naimari of
UNICEF - of "unsatisfactory services".

SOMALIA: Mogadishu faction leaders fail to agree on chairman of committee
Mogadishu faction leaders on Tuesday met in Mogadishu and resolved to set up
an administrative coordination committee, but failed to agree on who would
chair its meetings, the 'Ayaamaha' newspaper, monitored by the BBC, reported
on Wednesday. It said some of the leaders proposed that it be chaired on a
rotational basis. Names of the members of the committee were to be given on
Thursday. The 26-member committee would be responsible for the
administration of Mogadishu and its environs and the southern region.

SOMALIA: Severe food insecurity in parts of southern Somalia
The inter-agency Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) has reported that the
current Deyr season has been unusual in the late arrival of significant
rains in most areas. Where rains arrived late and failed to continue much
into December, low crop yields and production can be expected at the harvest
in January/February 2000. The Deyr season accounts for only 25% of annual
cereal production and in marginal areas is used to provide fodder for animal
consumption more than for human consumption. The most vulnerable groups in
southern Somalia are the agro-pastoralists of Bakool, Gedo, Bay and Hiraan -
as opposed to the pastoral and riverine groups in those regions. With low
livestock numbers and small marginal, rainfed plots, their asset base is
easily reduced by sustained conflict and successive poor seasons, FSAU
reports. Irrigated and recession planting appear to make the Shabelle and
Juba regions "relatively better off".

SOMALIA: Faction leader appeals for aid to alleviate famine
Meanwhile, the leader of the Rahaweyn Resistance Army (RRA) Colonel Hasan
Muhammad Nur, nicknamed "Shaar Gadud", on Monday appealed to the
international community and aid agencies to come to the aid of the people of
Bay and Bakool regions in south-central Somalia who were facing severe
famine, drought and outbreaks of various diseases, the 'Qaran' newspaper
reported.

SOMALIA: Six killed in new year attack
Six people were killed and 10 others wounded on the new year's day
(Saturday) when a group of armed men attacked passengers on a truck heading
out of Mogadishu at a road block in Galgalato northeast of Mogadishu. The
victims are believed to have been milk traders who were returning form
Mogadishu, the 'Qaran' newspaper reported.