SOMALIA: WFP officer released from six-day detention

Somali government officials on 23 October released a senior UN World Food Programme (WFP) staff member who was arrested during a raid on the UN compound in the capital Mogadishu the week before.

"We welcome the release of Idris Osman and are pleased that he will be reunited with his family," WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said in a statement issued from the agency’s headquarters in Rome.

Officials from the Somali National Security Service seized Osman, the officer-in-charge of WFP's office in Mogadishu, on 17 October.

The UN had decried his arrest as a violation of international law and had called for his immediate and unconditional release.

WFP subsequently suspended food distribution in Mogadishu, where 75,000 people have been receiving aid.

Soon after his release, Osman told IRIN he was not mistreated during his six days of detention. "I was allowed visitors," he said. "My family and my colleagues were able to visit me."

He said the worst part of his incarceration was not knowing why he was being detained, adding: "No one told me why I was arrested or what I was being held for."

Demonstrations demanding the release of Osman were held in Mogadishu on 22 October, according to a civil society source. Osman said he was grateful "to all those who campaigned for his release".

Christian Balslev-Olesen, acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia, said. "The UN remains committed to assisting the Somali people in their efforts to bring peace to their country and to bring humanitarian assistance to those most in need."