US Fears Feeding Terrorists, Delays Emergency Food Aid for Somalia

Published November 09, 2009 @ 04:27PM PT

The U.S. recently delayed emergency food aid to Somalia out of concerns that it would end up in the hands of terrorists. Now, the impact of the interruption is becoming clear and causing huge problems, with rations to starving people being cut. The decision in October to suspend millions of dollars worth of aid came due to fears that food and money was going to an Islamic insurgent group, with the U.S. assuring the UN that the delay would be brief.

But now the World Food Program has suggested “The food supply line to Somalia is effectively broken.” Food is stuck in Kenya until bureaucrats can decide better regulations — regulation that makes demands that the UN fear are unrealistic in such a chaotic environment like Somalia. The US donates almost $1 billion in aid to Somalia, but the distribution of this aid is only loosely monitored. The UN has communicated the urgency of the situation to USAID, but as I wrote yesterday, with USAID still lacking an administrator, the call may go unanswered. New mechanisms for distributions and monitoring must be constantly considered and reworked, but surely that can happen whilst aid is being delivered. This operation needn't shutdown completely to reboot with new regulations: millions of people rely on the US keeping the aid coming.

Photo credit: UN Photo/M Grant

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Comments (1)

Life in Somalia is very difficult for Americans to comprehend. While the partisan political bickering in the US means we fail to address important issues in a timely manner, we are far from a failed state. Consider living and moving around the Mojave desert without a paved road, where few services or businesses exist. The weak and those unable to fend for themselves don't survive.

I remember clapping my hands vigorously as the aircraft took off on my final departure from Mogadishu after one year in Somalia.

I had lived in the bush, just above the equator, for almost a year ensuring a feeding program assisted a refugee population as well as almost everyone else around. The international community knew that the official number was inflated by almost double the actual number of beneficiaries in need. Political realities and corruption made it difficult to reduce the number of rations delivered.

But you only had to walk past one dead child or adult laying on the ground, or assist a person on the verge of dying of malnutrition to know the humanitarian effort has to be made.

Posted by William Tarpai on 11/15/2009 @ 03:57PM PT
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