Famine victims now hit by aid theft

Thousands of sacks of food aid meant for Somalia’s famine victims have been stolen and are being sold at Mogadishu markets in the same districts where skeletal children in refugee camps can’t find enough to eat.

The UN’s World Food Programme has for the first time acknowledged it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months. But the WFP said that 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 aid is not even safe once it has been distributed to those in the camps. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp, where several aid groups have been distributing food, said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photographs of them with it.

And Ali Said Nur said he twice received two sacks of maize, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader. He said: “You don’t have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here.”

The UN says more than 3.2 million Somalis – nearly half the population – need food aid after a severe drought in the region, a situation complicated by the country’s long-running war.

More than 450,000 Somalis live in famine zones controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militants, where aid is difficult to deliver. The US government says 29,000 Somali children under the age of five already have died.

International officials have long expected some of the food aid pouring into Somalia to go missing. But the sheer scale of the thefts 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 if diverted aid is fuelling the civil war.

Joakim Gundel heads Katuni Consult, a Nairobi-based company often asked to evaluate international aid efforts in Somalia. He 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.”

WFP Somalia country director Stefano Porretti said the agency’s system of independent, third-party monitors uncovered allegations of possible food diversion. He also underscored how dangerous the work is: WFP has had 14 employees killed in Somalia since 2008.

In Mogadishu markets, piles of sacks of food are for sale stamped as being from the WFP, the US government aid arm USAID and the Japanese government.

The Scotsman found eight sites where aid food was being sold in bulk, and numerous smaller stores. Among the items being sold were corn, grain and Plumpy’nut, a fortified peanut butter designed specifically 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 deliveries – by unscrupulous businessmen. The percentage had been lower, he said, but in recent weeks the flood of aid into the capital has created a bonanza.

At one site, about a dozen corrugated iron sheds are stacked full with sacks. Outside, women sell food from open 50kg sacks, and traders load the food on to carts or vehicles under the indifferent eyes of local officials.

Stolen food aid is not new in Somalia – it is the main reason the US military become involved in Somalia during the country’s 1992 famine, an intervention that ended shortly after the battle known as Black Hawk Down.

The WFP is relying on a contractor in Somalia blamed for diverting large amounts of food aid in a 2010 UN report.

Eight Somali businessmen said they bought food from the contractor, Abdulqadir Mohamed Nur, who is known as Enow. His wife heads Saacid, a powerful Somali aid agency that the WFP uses to distribute hot food.

An official with extensive knowledge of the food trade said at some Saacid sites it appeared less than half the food supplied was being prepared for use.