UN says Somalia aid falling into wrong hands

The World Food Programme was urged on Wednesday to respond to a United Nations report saying that up to half of the aid destined for Somalia ends up in the hands of corrupt contractors and Islamist militias.
The report, yet to be published, underlines the dilemma of aid agencies providing assistance to the lawless east African state. diplomat on the UN Security Council, which will consider the report next week, said the WFP should respond to the claims about the diversion of food aid. The Rome-based UN agency declined to comment.
A monitoring team for the world body found that food aid was being diverted to local cartels which sold the supplies at a profit.
Diplomats acknowledged that WFP personnel were working under difficult conditions in which they might be obliged to pay off local facilitators in order to ensure the delivery of food aid. These contacts might, in turn, be linked to al-Shabaab, the Islamist movement which the US and others regard as a terrorist organisation, under al-Qaeda’s banner.
The report follows criticism by UN officials that US restrictions designed to prevent the diversion of food aid to al-Shabaab were harming humanitarian operations in Somalia.
The US reduced its funding to Somalia last year amid concerns that aid might fall into the hands of the extremists.
The WFP said this month it would continue its aid mission to up to half of the estimated 7.5m population, despite an announcement by al-Shabaab that it was suspending the agency’s operations.
As well as diverting food aid, corrupt Somali officials were co-operating with pirates operating along the coast, the report says. Officials are also said to have auctioned off visas to enable the highest bidders to travel to Europe.
The report comes as Somalia’s western-backed transitional government prepares an offensive to regain control over Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab regularly attacks government forces in the capital.
General William Ward, the head of the US Africa Command, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that he supported the transitional government’s efforts to control the capital with the backing of Amisom, an internationally assisted African Union peace force.
”To the degree the transitional federal government can in fact re-exert control over Mogadishu, with the help of Amisom and others, I think is something that we would look to do in support,” Gen Ward said.

CopyrightThe Financial Times