Minor earthquake shakes Indian capital, no damage reported

NEW DELHI — An earthquake measuring 4.2 shook the Indian capital New Delhi and surrounding areas late on Wednesday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries, authorities said.

Tremors lasting several seconds shook buildings across New Delhi, Reuters witnesses said.

India's Meteorological department said on its website that the quake measures 4.2 compared with earlier local media reports that an earthquake measuring 6.6 had hit the capital.

Throughout the city people quickly rushed out onto the streets fearing a major quake, as the epicenter was near Delhi.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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Somali refugees pack capital after rebels quit (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Thousands of Somali refugees, fleeing famine and years of violence, streamed into Mogadishu on Monday searching for food after Islamist rebels withdrew from the capital.

The al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab insurgents began pulling their fighters out of Mogadishu over the weekend, raising hopes that humanitarian groups would be able to step up aid deliveries after years of blockages by the militant group.

Locals told Reuters long lines of refugees were now heading to the battle-scarred city to escape the region's worst drought in decades, and existing supplies were already running low.

The United Nations says about 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation in Somalia and about 12 million people across the Horn of Africa region, including in Ethiopia and Kenya.

"Now thousands ... are on the way from Bakool and Bay (regions) to Mogadishu," Sherif Isak, 58, a refugee in Badbaado camp on the outskirts of the capital, told Reuters.

"I cannot say it will rain but I am sure life will improve if al Shabaab melts away. More agencies will come and people will get food and jobs," he said.

Al Shabaab withdrew four years into their battle to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government, an insurgency that has driven the chaotic country deeper into anarchy.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre 20 years ago, and peace is a distinct prospect.

The militants, hostile to any Western intervention, have blocked humanitarian deliveries in the past, saying aid creates dependency. Aid agencies say they have been unable to reach more than 2 million Somalis facing starvation in rebel-held territories.

Days after al Shabaab's departure, the first of three flights from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR landed in Mogadishu Monday, carrying more than 31 tons of shelter material, including blankets and jerricans for water.

Local officials said they were cautiously hopeful.

"If ongoing aid flights keep coming to Mogadishu, we are optimistic that people will survive," Fartun Abdisalan Adam, a local rights group official told Reuters in Mogadishu.

But existing supplies were running low. "The refugees are still storming the capital in search of food and there is not enough food for them to survive in the capital," she added.

Somalia's struggling government hailed the rebels' exit as a major victory but al Shabaab said their withdrawal was just tactical and promised to return, and analysts said the exit could herald a wave of al Qaeda-style suicide attacks.

CAR BLAST

Monday afternoon, a suicide car bomb detonated prematurely 13 km (8 miles) south of Mogadishu, officials said.

"We understand a car full of explosives detonated unexpectedly. Only the driver died, but two civilians were also injured," said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a spokesman for the African Union (AU) peace keeping force, AMISOM.

"The suicide car bomb was heading to Mogadishu. Al Shabaab has not given up war. They are masterminding more blasts but we are very alert."

Mogadishu residents said they still felt far from secure. Many feared fresh fighting between government troops and remnants of the rebel force hiding out in the capital.

Militants have threatened to behead anyone who betrayed their fighters to the police.

"I think this is one of the riskiest operating environments of any humanitarian operation in the world right now so I think sure, there's risk of an uptick in the fighting, there are all sorts of risks," a senior U.S. official traveling with the delegation of Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden was visiting Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya. Dadaab, declared full in 2008, has seen an influx of about 1,500 Somali refugees a day since late July.

"There's such a great influx every single day ... coming in here that I think it's just getting overwhelming for them to handle it all. We need to stay ahead of it," Biden told reporters.

(Additional reporting and writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James Macharia)

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U.N. flies food into famine-hit Somali capital

MOGADISHU — The United Nations airlifted emergency food for starving children into the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday as aid groups warned of a growing influx of hungry families from the famine-hit south of the country.

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Some 3.7 million Somalis — almost half of the population — are going hungry with drought hitting some 11.6 million people across what local media have dubbed a "triangle of death" straddling Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Though the U.N. food agency had already distributed food in the capital, this is its first airlift of food into Somalia since the food crisis began.

"We need to scale up our programs, and especially the nutrition programs, in order to avoid children falling into severe malnutrition," Stephanie Savariaud, a U.N. World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman, told Reuters.

"Then they need to get hospitalized and it's much more difficult to save them."

The U.N. plane carried 10 tons of so-called therapeutic food — the type used to feed malnourished children under five. The shipment will feed 3,500 children for a month, WFP said.

The agency said it has an additional 70 tons ready in Kenya, which it will fly to Somalia over the coming days.

Aid agencies say they cannot reach more than 2 million Somalis facing starvation in the parts of the country where Islamist militants control much of the worst-hit areas.

WFP officials have said they will try to deliver food to the areas controlled by the al-Qaida-linked al Shabaab rebels over the next week and that they will consider food drops from aircraft as a last resort.

There are about 400,000 displaced people in the capital Mogadishu, with about 1,000 new arrivals each day, the U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday. It estimated that 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the city over the last two months.

People in makeshift settlements are fighting over food being distributed by local charities, with the weaker ones unable to push through the crowds to get it, UNHCR said.

"Even if people are able to obtain the food and water being distributed, they often lack even the most basic containers to carry it. Often, they must haul food and water in plastic bags," UNHCR said.

The WFP has set up 16 feeding centers across the capital, providing hot meals to new arrivals using supplies delivered by sea from Kenya and Tanzania.

Boats are continuing to shift food in but they can take months to arrive. They are escorted by the European Naval Force to Somalia to deter pirate attacks.

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U.N. flies food into famine-hit Somali capital (Reuters)

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The United Nations airlifted emergency food for starving children into the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday as aid groups warned of a growing influx of hungry families from the famine-hit south of the country.

Some 3.7 million Somalis -- almost half of the population -- are going hungry with drought hitting some 11.6 million people across what local media have dubbed a "triangle of death" straddling Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Though the U.N. food agency had already distributed food in the capital, this is its first airlift of food into Somalia since the food crisis began.

"We need to scale up our programs, and especially the nutrition programs, in order to avoid children falling into severe malnutrition," Stephanie Savariaud, a U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman, told Reuters.

"Then they need to get hospitalized and it's much more difficult to save them."

The U.N. plane carried 10 tonnes of so-called therapeutic food -- the type used to feed malnourished children under five. The shipment will feed 3,500 children for a month, WFP said.

The agency said it has an additional 70 tonnes ready in Kenya, which it will fly to Somalia over the coming days.

Aid agencies say they cannot reach more than two million Somalis facing starvation in the parts of the country where Islamist militants control much of the worst-hit areas.

WFP officials have said they will try to deliver food to the areas controlled by the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels over the next week and that they will consider food drops from aircrafts as a last resort.

There are about 400,000 displaced people in the capital Mogadishu, with about 1,000 new arrivals each day, the U.N.'s refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday. It estimated that 100,000 internally displaced people have arrived in the city over the last two months.

People in makeshift settlements are fighting over food being distributed by local charities, with the weaker ones unable to push through the crowds to get it, UNHCR said.

"Even if people are able to obtain the food and water being distributed, they often lack even the most basic containers to carry it. Often, they must haul food and water in plastic bags," UNHCR said.

The WFP has set up 16 feeding centers across the capital, providing hot meals to new arrivals using supplies delivered by sea from Kenya and Tanzania.

Boats are continuing to shift food in but they can take months to arrive. They are escorted by the European Naval Force to Somalia to deter pirate attacks.

(Additional reporting and writing by Katy Migiro in Nairobi; Editing by Barry Malone and Elizabeth Fullerton)

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