Gangs storm UN Somalia relief ship

MOGADISHU (Agencies) - Hopes that international efforts to save Somalia's famished population were gathering momentum were brought firmly back to earth yesterday when marauding Somali fighters stripped a United Nations relief ship of fuel oil and stole 200 tons of food aid.

A senior UN source in Nairobi said one of Somalia's numerous warring clans drove heavily armed jeeps into the port at the southern town of Kismayu and forced their way on to the Danish ship Sea Pearl, which was unloading UN grain. 'They looted all the fuel oil we had on board, plus 200 tons of grain which was in the course of discharge,' said the source. 'There were people swarming all over the ship.' The Sea Pearl was carrying 3,000 tons of sorghum from the UN's World Food Programme. In Mogadishu, trucks from the north of the city were ambushed crossing the capital's 'Green Line' divide between the forces of the self-styled president, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and those of General Mohamed Farah Aideed, preventing the WFP from moving any food out of the port.

Further reports, page 8