A diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Somalia dated January 6 said the action “likely resulted in the destruction of these emergency food supplies,” and noted that the decision had been approved by the country’s president. Because of the demolition, an additional 1,650 metric tons of food commodities that were scheduled to arrive earlier this month were instead stored at an alternative warehouse.
The United Nations World Food Programme said it would notify Somalia that the demolition constituted a breach of UN diplomatic protocols.
As a reminder, the Somali delegate to the UN is, as of January 1, sitting as the President of the UN Security Council.
Of course none of the food was going to those in need anyway.
A member of Somalia’s parliament and its Foreign Affairs committee, Abdillahi Hashi Abib, wrote to United States officials saying that 90% of Somalia’s humanitarian assistance comes from America, and that the Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) has been “defrauding” it because “the funds have been captured and monetized by a single-family network and its clan affiliates.”
For example, three brothers of the agency’s chairman, Mohamud Macallin Abdulle, each receive $15,000 a month salaries, paid through their wives, he said, and the Finance Department and Training Unit are both run by the his uncles.
He said that “food donations from the US, EU, UAE, Qatar, and China are systematically sold in Magadishu markets after staged photo-ops,” in which starving people are paid $5 to pay for photos with the food, before it is taken away from them.
Read the whole article above. It should sound familiar but it’s the Somali’s doing it to their own.
There is a rumor that ALL aid to Somalia will be ended as of May. Why it’s not sooner, no idea. And we’ll see if it actually happens.
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