Stolen food aid for Somalia’s hungry sold

Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia’s famine victims have been stolen and are being sold openly, depriving those who have flooded into the country’s capital of urgently needed supplies, an investigation has found.
By The Newsroom
Published 16th Aug 2011, 07:00 BST

The UN’s World Food Programme admitted it has been examining food theft in Somalia for two months. The WFP said the “scale and intensity” of the famine crisis does not allow for a suspension of assistance, saying that doing so would lead to “many unnecessary deaths.”

The UN says more 3.2 million Somalis – nearly half the population – need food after a severe drought that has been complicated by Somalia’s long-running war. More than 450,000 Somalis live in famine zones controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants, where aid is difficult to deliver.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

International officials have long expected some of the food aid pouring into Somalia to go missing but the sheer scale of the theft taking place calls into question aid groups’ ability to reach the starving.

It also raises concerns about the willingness of aid agencies and the Somali government to fight corruption, and whether diverted aid is fuelling Somalia’s 20-year-civil war.

Joakim Gundel, who heads Katuni Consult, a Nairobi-based company often asked to evaluate international aid efforts in Somalia, said: “While helping starving people, you are also feeding the power groups that make a business out of the disaster.

“You’re saving people’s lives today so they can die tomorrow.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Vast piles of food sacks with stamps on them from the World Food Programme, the US government aid arm USAID and the Japanese government are for sale in Mogadishu markets and reporters found eight sites where aid food was being sold in bulk and numerous smaller stores. Among the items being sold were corn, grain, and a specially fortified peanut butter designed for starving children.

An official in Mogadishu with extensive knowledge of the food trade said he believes a massive amount of aid is being stolen – perhaps up to half of aid deliveries – by unscrupulous businessmen.