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Somali PM: UN failing to distribute aid

29 July 2011 02:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Somalia’s Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali has accused the United Nations of preventing aid from reaching victims of famine in the Horn of Africa country, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The premier said on Thursday the UN was hoarding supplies and failing to distribute them to those in need, Al-Jazeera reported on Thursday.

World Food Program spokeswoman Challiss McDonough rejected the allegation.

"We are distributing food in Mogadishu. We are doing it every day. We are feeding over 300,000 people in Mogadishu including feeding centers around the city," she said.

The UN last week officially declared famine in two parts of southern Somalia, as the world slowly mobilized to help 12 million people battling hunger in the region’s worst drought in 60 years.

Somalia is the worst affected nation but parts of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti are also hit.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.