Pollock

BurkholderWeinstein

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the move came after a "significant increase in the workload" over the past fortnight. Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help. "What we need is assurances from the World Food Programme and from other agencies, the United Nations or other agencies, both public and in the non-governmental sector, who are willing to go into Somalia who will tell us affirmatively that they are not being taxed by al-Shabab, they are not being subjected to bribes from al-Shabab, He said the goal was to save lives, "not to play a game of 'gotcha' with a UN agency or any other group that is brave enough to go in and provide that assistance". But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution.