Red Cross Relief Ships Anchor in Somalia
NAIROBI, Kenya — The Red Cross on Sunday anchored relief ships north and south of Somalia’s war-shattered capital and began distributing emergency food to people displaced by fighting.
Gregoire Tavernier, a spokesman with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Nairobi, said small dhows were transporting the relief supplies from the ships anchored offshore.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the capital of Mogadishu since intense clan-based warfare erupted Nov. 17 between President Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aidid, head of the ruling United Somali Congress.
The United Somali Congress seized the capital a year ago after driving former President Mohamed Siad Barre from power with heavy warfare.
The once-lovely coastal capital of low, white-washed buildings was severely damaged in that fighting and has now been reduced to rubble.
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