MOGADISHU (Sunatimes)- As Somali militant group Alshabaab have denied the drought-stricken war weary Somalis from getting aid food, newly elected regional president says they have available well-proven emergency food air-drop system that will quickly deliver emergency food rations directly to the starving Somalis in the central Somalia’s Hiran region.

Speaking to the reporters in the Somali capital on Saturday, Mohamud Abdigab, the president of Hiran state, a newly launched administration for Hiran region has acknowledged that the food for airdrops is ready to move to the region sooner.

“ Since our people are dying in the hands of the ruthless terrorists in Hiran, we have the responsibility to save our people regardless these circumstances” Mohamed flanked by his new ministers says.

“ The planes will transport the food soon and drop them in the worst drought hit areas” He proclaimed.

The airdrops for droughts and flood victims were widely used during 1993-1994 in Bosnia, and again during 2001 in Afghanistan.

Launched last year in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, his new administration which is currently on exile from it’s region confidently believes to regain the control of the region from Alshabaab extremists.

“ We are still in the process of getting the region in our hands again, I hope things will be changed beforehand” he noted.

On such airdrop delivery orderliness, the planes simply drop foil-wrapped packets of food from the cargo ramp of a plane. Terminal resistance assures that these lightweight food packets will not harm anyone on the ground, although this airdrop will not get the chance to control everything since Alshabaab is in control of the region. Nevertheless the drops will remain sealed and edible, even if dropped from thousands of feet.

Hundreds of starving Somalis effected by the deepening drought hit in Somalia have no aid agencies to help as Alshabaab banned the aid agencies from operating their controlled region. Likewise, they also ordered starving people to assist other refugees.

It’s unknown how the starving people in the region will receive the airdrop rations since Alshabaab banned any aid from outside of the country as they also burned bulky of food sacks donated to starving people by aid agencies.

The group controls swathes in south and central Somalia and imposed rigorous orders, a move dismissed by Somalia’s leading religious leaders who described them as ‘impervious and irreligious’.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), air drops have delivered 1.5 million tons of aid in the world's worst emergencies over the past 15 years. In its busiest operation, in south Sudan, 2.5 million people in need were reached between 1990 and 2005. It's an expensive enterprise, and these days humanitarian agencies prefer to build roads to reach the vulnerable. Road construction and repair in southern Sudan has made overland delivery roughly 50 percent cheaper than by air.

But roads can be washed away in heavy rains, or closed by conflict; in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, airdrops are the only practical way to supply 130,000 people displaced by fighting around Dungu. The last convoy of trucks to reach the town from Uganda took 35 days to drive a distance of 520kms - compared to less than two hours by plane.

The horn of Africa nation has been without central government since1991 after clan militias and warlords overthrown the dictator regime of Siad Barre that lastly leashed out to constant violence for more than 20 years.

SOURCE: SUNATIMES.COM