Merka, Somalia - Somalia froze aid activities in a famine-stricken south-eastern region on Tuesday, stalling a French navy operation aimed at stepping up food deliveries to the Horn of Africa country.
A spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said that the Somali authorities had announced a freeze on all aid activities in the Lower Shabelle region, just south of the capital Mogadishu.
The government had imposed "new restrictions" on all UN agencies and non-governmental organisations operating in the area, WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon told reporters.
Smerdon was speaking in Merka, a regional port around 100km south of Mogadishu where two ships - loaded with close to 4 000 tons of WFP food aid destined for camps housing the displaced - arrived earlier on Tuesday.
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"We are all banned from moving in this area," Smerdon said. The restrictions were announced in a statement read by the government's security chief, quoting a decision by President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.
Lower Shabelle is considered the breadbasket of Somalia but has yielded its worst crops in 13 years, causing food shortages that have been compounded by an influx of hundreds of thousands displaced by fighting in the capital.
"No reason has been given by the authorities. The two ships that have arrived today in Merka are blocked and cannot be unloaded. There can be no plane movement in any airport of the region, including K50," he said.
K50 is an airport located 50km south of the capital Mogadishu and the preferred landing site for humanitarian flights.
The first shipment of WFP aid delivered under French navy escort arrived in Somalia two weeks ago.
Somalia's waters are among the most dangerous in the world, with at least 25 attacks or attempted attacks by pirates against merchant vessels since the start of the year.
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