AFRICA: SOMALIA: SITUATION IS TRAGIC- DRAMATIC CRISIS

Agenzia Fides REPORT - "I wonder if that of the Shabab is a strategic retreat to bring together humanitarian aid to Mogadishu and then suddenly come back and take a part, or their management has felt the strong international pressure, particularly from the mass media depicting the Shabab as enemies of their people, and therefore have decided to temporarily leave the scene of the Somali capital". So in an interview with Fides Agency, His Exc. Mgr. Giorgio Bertin, Bishop of Djibouti and Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, comments the sudden retreat of the Shabab militia from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, highly exhausted by civil war and drought which has caused a serious humanitarian situation.
"A third hypothesis is that there is an international desire for a direct military intervention in Somalia. This high visibility of Somalia in the international media has made me think back to 1991-92 when there was a strong media campaign that preceded the operation "Restore Hope" (1992-94) " added Mgr. Bertin.
The Bishop of Djibouti does not deny that "the problem of drought in the Horn of Africa is real. We started dealing with the problem in April. The number of Somalis moving to Kenya, Ethiopia and, ultimately, even towards Mogadishu, indicates that the crisis is dramatic.Therefore an emergency intervention is necessary. But all this emphasis on Somalia on behalf of the media as the "storm centre" of the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, raises doubts that it is the prelude to a humanitarian military intervention ".
"However, from the sources that I have in Somalia, the situation is indeed tragic", concludes Mgr. Bertin. (L.M.)
http://www.fides.org/aree/news/newsdet.php?idnews=29628&lan=eng

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