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The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on Thursday donated an assortment of food and non-food items to families in Medina village, near the Halane base camp in Mogadishu.

The items, including blankets, buckets, jerrycans, mosquito nets, rice, sugar, and cooking oil among others, were handed over to the families by the AMISOM Head of Humanitarian Liaison Unit, Abdul Diabagate, and the AMISOM Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) officer of the Ugandan contingent, Major Emmanuel Owachgiu.

Speaking at the handover, in Mogadishu, on Thursday, Diabagate said the donation was intended to alleviate the immediate needs of the families in the vicinity of the AMISOM base camp.

“I want to thank all of you for taking the time to come and receive this donation and for maintaining a good relationship with AMISOM and supporting our operations. On behalf of AMISOM, I look forward to us keeping and working together to make sure that we all fight hard to bring peace to Somalia,”Diabagate said.

Diabagate thanked the CIMIC office at the Uganda AMISOM contingent headquarters, for bridging the gap between civilians and the military, thereby enhancing relations with local communities and boosting AMISOM operations.

“We cannot do this distribution, or work well with civilians without the assistance of CIMIC because they are the ones interacting with the population,” he added.

On his part, Maj. Owachgiu noted that donations to the families follows a recent needs assessment, conducted by the CIMIC office in coordination with the Humanitarian Liaison Unit, which identified families most in need.

“We settled on the specific families, having carried out an assessment of their living conditions and discovered that the ones we have given the items to were the ones who needed quick assistance, which is why we have carried out this initiative,” said Maj. Owachgiu.

Over the years, the Humanitarian Liaison Unit of AMISOM has worked closely with the CIMIC office to identify and meet community needs through donations of food and non-food items, to alleviate hardships faced by local communities, mostly affected by disasters.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union Mission in Somalia.