DOCOL, Somalia — One in five Somali children is wasting away from malnutrition. Tens of thousands need urgent medical care to survive. The whole middle belt of the country is teetering on the brink of famine. United Nations officials say Somalia has not been in such perilous shape since the central government collapsed in 1991 and is in desperate need of help.But right now that help is being delayed, they say, at least partly because the American government is worried that its aid is going to feed terrorists.American officials are concerned that United Nations contractors may be funneling American donations to the Shabab, a Somali terrorist group with growing ties to Al Qaeda. United Nations officials say the American government has been withholding millions of dollars in aid shipments while a new set of rules is worked out to better police the distribution of aid.Few aid officials believe that the American government will actually shut off the spigot of life-saving assistance to Somalia when a punishing drought is sweeping across the region. But at least $50 million in American aid has been delayed as talks continue, United Nations officials said. Meanwhile, there is only enough emergency food to last Somalia four more weeks, they said.“The potential damage is huge,” said Kiki Gbeho, the head coordinator of United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia, during a visit to a drought-stricken area on Thursday.Overall aid funds were drastically down this year, even before the American government postponed its usually hefty contributions, Ms. Gbeho said. As a result, disease-prevention programs had to be cut, and “if you don’t give funding to Al Shabab areas, that’s 60 percent of the people,” she added.American officials defended their actions on Thursday. One State Department official said the amount of withheld aid was less than $50 million, though the official would not say exactly how much.“We were compelled to hold up that amount once there were legitimate concerns that the aid might be being diverted,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to be named. “We have to follow the law.”The official emphasized that the delays had not caused any interruptions in food aid delivery, something United Nation officials confirmed, though they said the uninterrupted flow of emergency food into Somalia was possible only because of leftovers from last year’s budget and agencies’ borrowing from themselves until new money comes in. The State Department also says that it plans to resume full shipments and that the delayed aid will be distributed soon.
Elders here in Docol, in central Somalia, say they are running out of time and nearly finished with their emergency rations, which they often share with their animals because the drought has killed all the pasture land...more..http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/africa/02somalia.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1
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