BY GEORGE MUNYORI
Thursday, July 05, 2007
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NAIROBI (Capital FM) - The Government has been urged to reconsider its decision to maintain an indefinite closure of the border with Somalia. National Muslim Leaders Forum Chairman Abdullahi Abdi on Thursday said stabilization in the war torn country remained elusive and thousands of Somalis were in dire need of asylum.
Abdi said the closure of the border continued to cause considerable suffering to Somali civilians who could not be reached by humanitarian groups seeking to deliver relief food since the Somali shoreline has been occupied by pirates.
“Somali’s are trying to cross the Red Sea using boats and they are dying as they try to get to the Gulf of Eden. If Kenya opened up its borders tomorrow Somalis would throng Nairobi,” said Abdi.
Speaking during the launch of a report on human rights in Somalia, Abdi urged charitable organisations in Kenya to develop more interest in events within the besieged Horn of Africa country.
Abdi said rights concerns surpassed national borders and should therefore be the concern of human rights organisations in Kenya.
“The human rights network in Kenya is one that is the light for Africa. We are the loudest voice that’s heard within the East African region. We should be setting the standards for other African countries in terms of human rights activism,” said Abdi.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju ruled out any possible reopening of the Kenya-Somali border in the near future saying the closure ensured that security was maintained in Kenya.
The closure of the border was necessitated by the bloody ouster of the Union of Islamic Courts by the Somali Transitional Federal Government backed by Ethiopian troops and African Union peace keepers late last year.
Source: Capital FM, July 04, 2007