UN gears up to speed emergency aid to Somalia

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29 (Reuters) The United Nations said it was gearing up to speed emergency aid to Somalis driven from their homes by war after the interim government approved the resumption of relief flights.

''The Transitional Federal Government has now authorised the resumption of all UN humanitarian flights into Somalia with immediate effect,'' the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said at UN headquarters in New York yesterday.

The people of Somalia, already living in one of the world's poorest and most violent nations, have faced increased suffering after more than a week of fighting between Islamist soldiers and forces loyal to Somalia's transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops.

Even before the conflict broke out last week, the World Food Programme had been providing emergency aid to more than half a million of Somalia's 10 million people affected by a severe drought followed by flooding.

While aid flights were suspended temporarily after Somalia closed its international borders during the fighting, plans were now under way for a resumption of shipments, OCHA said.

''This resumption of access is critical for the people of Somalia, who have suffered from years of conflict, drought and now flooding,'' acting UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlstrom said in a printed statement.

The same statement reminded the warring parties it was their responsibility to provide safe passage for people trying to flee areas of active conflict.

While thousands of families are reported to have fled their homes for other parts of Somalia to avoid the fighting, there has been no large-scale flow of war-related refugees into neighboring Kenya, OCHA said.

There was also ''no significant displacement'' reported from Mogadishu, the former Islamist stronghold that has now fallen to Ethiopian-backed government troops, OCHA said.

Relief workers have been struggling to maintain operations in chaotic Somalia since 1991, the year dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted from power. The country has had no effective central government since then, making it hard for aid groups to operate in safety and gain access to those in need.

Reuters SBA VP0430