Scale of reported Somalia food aid theft implausible, insists UN

Stolen food sold in Mogadishu markets amounts to no more than 1% of total assistance, says World Food Programme spokesman The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has rejected as implausible a report of widespread food aid theft in Somalia, where more than 3.2 million people are relying on a massive international relief operation. Associated Press claimed that vast piles of food bearing stamps from the WFP, the US government aid arm USAid, the Japanese government and the Kuwaiti government are for sale in Mogadishu markets. AP said it found eight sites where thousands of sacks of food aid were being sold in bulk. Other food aid was also for sale in numerous smaller stores, it was reported. Among the items allegedly being sold were Kuwaiti dates and biscuits, corn, grain, and Plumpy’nut, a fortified peanut butter designed for starving children. However, according to WFP, the key player in the relief effort for Somalia, early estimates based on the evidence provided by AP suggest the diverson of food aid amounts to about 1% of food assistance the organisation is bringing through Mogadishu. WFP is shipping 5,000 tons a month of food aid into Mogadishu. “From our perspective, the scale of theft alleged is implausible,” said Greg Barrow, a WFP spokesman in Rome. “The scale of theft suggested would require a logistical operation comparable in size to what we are doing in Mogadishu.” For the past two weeks, planeloads of aid from the UN, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait and other countries have been arriving in the Somali capital almost daily. Supplies by ship are also on the way. Five areas of Somalia are officially in a state of famine, and the rest of southern Somalia could follow within the next four to six weeks, according to the UN. Nearly half of Somalia’s population need emergency food aid amid the worst drought in the Horn of Africa for 60 years, which has come on top of a long-running civil war. The Islamist insurgents, al-Shabaab, announced their withdrawal from Mogadishu earlier this month, but the move is not expected to end insecurity in the Somali capital. Some 2.8 million people are in the south, where al-Shabaab is at its strongest. The group’s hardline elements oppose the presence of most western aid agencies in areas under their control. Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for relief groups. Aside from al-Shabaab, they also have to contend with an ineffective transitional government riven by clan rivalries. A Human Rights Watch report on Monday accused all sides involved in the conflict of contributing to Somalia’s humanitarian catastrophe by committing serious violations of the laws of war. WFP rarely allows its staff outside the African Union’s heavily fortified main base at the airport and relies on a network of Somali aid agencies to distribute its food. The organisation said it had uncovered possible theft of food aid through its monitoring systems and had launched investigations. It noted that it had put in place strengthened and rigorous monitoring and controls for its relief operations, but – given the lack of access to some areas because of security concerns and restrictions – humanitarian supply lines remained highly vulnerable to looting, attacks and diversion by armed groups. WFP condemned any diversion of “even the smallest amount of food from starving and vulnerable Somalis “. A Somali government spokesman, Abdirahman Omar Osman, said the government does not believe food aid is being stolen on a large scale, but promised that, if such reports come to light, the government “will do everything in our power” to bring action in a military court. AP said its investigation found evidence that WFP is relying on a contractor, Abdulqadir Mohamed Nur, also known as Enow, who was blamed for diverting large amounts of food aid in a 2010 UN report. Barrow denied this was the case, however. “We are not relying on him, we are not using him,” he said. The UN says more than 12 million people across the Horn are in need of food aid, including more than three million in Somalia. Famine Somalia Africa Mark Tran guardian.co.uk

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