WFP truck driver killed in Somalia

NAIROBI (AFP) - A truck driver working for the World Food Programme was shot and killed in central Somalia after militiamen stopped a convoy of lorries ferrying relief food, the UN agency said Thursday.

A gunman opened fire at the convoy late Wednesday, wounding the driver who died in hospital, WFP's director for Somalia Peter Goossens said in a statement.

"We condemn this senseless killing and once again, urge all parties to ensure the safe passage of humanitarian staff and cargo across the country," Goossens said.

In February, gunmen shot dead the leader of a convoy of WFP-contracted trucks in southern Somalia.

Mounting violence in the Horn of African country has disrupted delivery of aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians uprooted from their homes.

Late Wednesday, clashes between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militia left 23 people dead in a village some 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Mogadishu.

The African nation has been wracked by violence since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre led to a bloody power struggle that has defied numerous bids to restore normalcy.

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