SOMALIA:Somali armed forces stormed a United Nations compound in Mogadishu yesterday and detained the head of the World Food Programme in the city.
Witnesses said as many as 60 gunmen took part in the raid, which follows weeks of growing tension between the UN agency and the country's transitional federal government.
In a statement the WFP said it had been given no explanation for the detention of Idris Osman by the national security service and was suspending food distributions to 75,000 people in the city.
"In the light of Mr Osman's detention and in view of WFP's duty to safeguard its staff, WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions and the loading of WFP food from our warehouses in the Somali capital," it said.
The detention followed some of the heaviest fighting in weeks in the capital. Overnight, at least eight civilians and one policeman died as Islamic insurgents battled police officers.
The WFP is the largest aid agency operating in Somalia, delivering emergency relief to about two million people. However, government officials have accused the agency of feeding Islamic terrorists through its distributions to aid camps.
The camps are home to hundreds of thousands of people who fled Mogadishu after the fall of the Islamic Courts Union at the end of last year.
"This week they began distributing food through mosques, with the approval of the governor of the region, but the raid may be related to that," said an aid worker.
Getting aid into Somalia is already a precarious business. Ships are routinely hijacked, borders are sealed and aid workers must run the gauntlet of checkpoints controlled by warlords.
But the deteriorating security marks business as usual for much of the country's embattled population after six months of peace last year.
A coalition of Islamic Courts took control of Mogadishu before spreading its influence across much of southern and central Somalia. They brought security to communities riven by 15 years of clan fighting but their brand of Sharia law raised concern among western governments and neighbouring countries that Somalia could become a haven for Islamic terrorists. Their reign ended when Ethiopia launched an air and ground assault in December.
Since then Mogadishu has disintegrated into anarchy, as insurgents and warlords battle for control. African Union and government soldiers have struggled to assert authority.
In all, some 400,000 people have fled for the relative safety of aid camps.