Naxariisdaro

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

UN food is stolen from the starving in Somalia fake camp fraud

 

 

One of the UN’s largest international relief efforts is under investigation after it emerged that thousands of sacks of food aid were being diverted from starving refugees and openly sold for profit.

 

The head of the UN’s $955 million (£580 million) aid operation in Somalia has launched an inquiry after being shown footage showing tonnes of food bearing the World Food Programme (WFP) logo widely on sale in Mogadishu, the capital.

 

Stacks of bags of maize and wheat and tins of cooking oil — marked “not for re-sale” and bearing the UN stamp — are on sale from ten warehouses and 15 shops in the city’s main market.

 

About 45,000 tonnes of WFP food are shipped to Somalia from Kenya every month. Mogadishu traders told Channel 4 News that they bought their supplies straight from UN staff. “We buy [food] aid from WFP staff directly or from people they employ,” one market trader said.

 

“They take us to the warehouses used by the WFP and let us load our lorries. The goods are freely available and you can buy as much as you like, but we usually buy no more than 500 to 1,000 sacks at a time. Just a tonne or half a tonne a day can be shifted more discreetly.”

 

The food could hardly be more needed. More than a million people have been driven from their homes by fighting in the area, including 117,000 thought to have fled from Mogadishu in the past month.

 

UN officials say that civil war and the worst drought in a decade have created “near-famine conditions”, with Somalia ranking alongside Darfur as the worst humanitarian emergency in the world. The WFP is charged with feeding 3.5 million Somalis — almost half the population — and is struggling to overcome an operational shortfall of more than $84 million over the next six months.

 

Britain gave the WFP £9 million for Somalia last year through the Department for International Development and is now deciding whether to give more.

 

Another market trader described how he invented fictional refugee camps, which were then allocated food that he could sell. “You go to the WFP office and fill in an application form to create a camp,” he said. “When we receive the food, we give out some and then divide the rest between ourselves and the WFP guys who negotiated the deal.”

 

The scam is, according to Mark Bowden, the former British diplomat who is now the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, “disturbing”. He is urging the WFP to speed up its inquiry.

 

Many of the sacks for sale are marked: “A gift from the American people”, with the US government’s aid agency, USAID, providing $274 million last year in food and in humanitarian assistance for Somalia.

 

Peter Goossens, the WFP’s Somalia director, describes food for sale as a “minor phenomenon”.

 

Xigasho

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Four killed in Somali soldiers' row: security official

 

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Three Somali soldiers and a civilian were shot dead on Sunday when a argument between government troops ended in violent clashes, a security forces official said.

 

The soldiers, who were guarding a roadblock in the capital Mogadishu, got into a row over money paid to them by drivers of vehicles that passed through.

 

Payment from an aid convoy was a particular point of conflict, security forces official Abdulahi Hersi told AFP

.

 

The argument rapidly spiralled out of control and the soldiers began fighting with machine guns and rocket launchers.

 

"There was fighting between the government troops over a humanitarian convoy carrying supplies for displaced families," Hersi said, adding that he believed the dispute was over some expenses taken from the World Food Programme convoy.

 

"Three soldiers have died and another was wounded during the clashes," he added.

 

A civilian was also killed after getting caught in the crossfire in front of his house, according to witness Feysal Abdilahi.

 

Somalia has been in the grip of civil war since the overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

 

AFP

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

First burcadbadeedii ayaa isbaaro u dhigatay baddii, for the ships with aid have to be escorted by foreign navies. Second, uusbuuriyaashi ganacsatada sheeganaaye ayaa isbaaro kale u dhigtay at degadda. Third, kistii yarayd soo hartay mööryaantii ayaa mid sadexaad u dhigtay.

 

Naxariis habayaraatee kuma jirto Soomaalida qaarkood. Xaasidnimadaan maa inoo dambeysay?

[Som@li]

Naxariis goormaa u danbeeysay, War meesha waxuush baa ka buuxda, Raashin laxado iyo waa meel soke, Dhiigii islaamka baa la xalaalaystey.

 

Waxa meeshu la degi la'dahay, Waa dulmiga,Eebe ha sahlo.