Three children have died from hunger and dozens more are at risk of starvation in the besieged district of Wajid, about 300 km northwest of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu.
Mohamed Abdi Hassan, the chairman of a local youth association in Wajid, said the children died earlier this week. He said stocks of food and other supplies including medicines were almost exhausted in the district.
He added that no food supplies nor other goods had been transported in since al-Shabaab imposed a blockade around the district four months ago. Around 5,000 families live in Wajid.
“The group has positioned itself on all the main roads leading towards Wajid and is refusing access to the trucks and vehicles travelling to the district,” Hassan told Radio Ergo’s reporter in Baidoa by phone.
Al-Shabaab has lost the control of the district to the allied Somali and Ethiopian troops in February.
The price of the little food available in the market has already more than doubled, forcing many poor families to stay without food for days.
However, the Somali federal government said it is planning to deliver food aid to besieged towns and villages including Wajid. The director general of the Interior and Federalism Ministry, Ali Abdidoon Halane, told Radio Ergo that more than 25 trucks and vehicles carrying food aid and medical supplies had been parked at Baidoa, about 90 km from Wajid, since 3 May because the roads to Wajid, Hudur and Burdubo were all closed by al-Shabaab.
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