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NGO COSVI
(Coordinating Committee of the Organisation for Volunteer
Services) was the subject of a grenade attack in the coastal
town of Merka on Thursday in the latest of a series of incidents
targeting humanitarian agencies.
The attack,
which follows violent incidents targeting the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and the European Community Humanitarian
Office (ECHO) in Merka, appeared to be the work of an Islamic
fundamentalist organisation which claimed that COSVI was prosletysing
for Christianity and spreading "disruptive western influences",
humanitarian sources told IRIN on Friday.
COSVI
has been involved in EC-supported demobilisation and education
programmes in Merka.
The increased
targeting of humanitarian agencies appeared to be related
to local clan politics, tension associated with the sharia
courts, and with disgruntled contract- and job-seekers, rather
than any wider issues in Somalia, such as ongoing peace initiative
in Djibouti, the sources added.
The Somalia
Aid Coordination Body (SACB), an umbrella group of donors,
UN agencies and NGOs, was scheduled to meet on Friday afternoon
to discuss a coordinated response to the latest security incident
in Merka.
The COSVI
attack follows the withdrawal from Puntland in the northeast
of the German NGO Aktion Afrika Hilfe (AAH) after a failed
attack on Tuesday, when a grenade was thrown over its compound
wall but did not explode.
According
to UN sources, the attack was instigated by a disgruntled
job-seeker.
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