U.S. delays food aid to Somalia. United Nations officials say that the supply of critical
food aid to Somalia has been interrupted and that rations to starving people have to be
cut partly because the American government has delayed food contributions out of fears
but they could be diverted to terrorists. Last month, American officials said they had
suspended millions of dollars of food aid because of concerns that Somali contractors
working for the United Nations were funneling food and money through Shabab and Islamist
insurgent group of growing ties to Okaita. American officials have played down the impact
of the delays and say the food shipments could resume soon. Once the United States government
has been assured that the United Nations is doing more to police the aid deliveries. But
on Friday, the World Food Program said the food supply line to Somalia is effectively
broken. United Nations officials said that around 40 million pounds of American donated
food was being held up in warehouses in Mombasa and neighboring Kenya because American officials
were not allowing aid workers to distribute it until a new set of tighter regulations
has been ironed out. United Nations officials said the American government was insisting
on guarantees that were totally unrealistic in Somalia, like demanding that aid transporters
not pay fees at roadblocks, which are virtually unavoidable in a nation widely considered
a case study in chaos and confusion. American aid officials declined to comment on Friday.
In the drought-stricken regions of central Somalia, where entire communities are on
the brink of famine, elders said that many children who had been surviving off the American
donations were now dying from hunger. In the last days or in times, there will be famine.
We are totally dependent on this food and people are now suffering, said the Chairman
of the Drought Committee in Central Somalia. We have nothing else to eat, he said. Somalia
is one of the neediest poorest nations in the world and one of the most complex environments
to deliver aid. Ever since the central government imploded in 1991, the country has lurched
from one crisis to the next, the latest being a vicious civil war between a weak government
and an extremist Islamist insurgency during one of the worst droughts in years, and some
places it hasn't rained in years. The United States has played a huge role in saving
lives by supplying approximately 40% of the $850 million annual aid budget for Somalia.
But that aid is often only loosely monitored at best once it enters the country because
of the dangers of working in Somalia, and the fact that so much of it is a no-go zone
for foreigners. For months now, United Nations officials have been negotiating with their
American counterparts, trying to agree on language for new rules that would ensure
as much as possible. But American donated food goes to needy people and not to the Shabab.
Last month, American officials said they were legally bound to do this because the American
government has listed the Shabab as a terrorist organization. A designation that means the
aiding or abetting the Islamist insurgent group is a serious crime. There is increasing
evidence, according to United Nations documents, that some of the United Nations contractors
in Somalia have been stealing food and channeling the proceeds to the Shabab and other militant
groups or organizations. United Nations officials are investigating some of their biggest contractors.
United Nations officials, say with other donor nations, have been skittish about contributing
aid during these investigations, which is another reason for the aid shortages in Somalia.
And of course, the global recession has also taken a toll on aid operations around the
world. That said, the United States is traditionally WFP's largest single donor, said a spokesman
for the World Food Program, and other donors cannot make up the difference. He warned that
the food supplies for Somalia were steadily dwindling each month, and that by December
we will completely run out. Again, he warned that the food supplies for Somalia were steadily
dwindling each month, and that by December we will completely run out, partly because
of the standoff over the new rules and the ensuing interruption in the food pipeline.
The World Food Program recently halved the emergency rations to the more than one million
displaced Somalis. United Nations officials said they had been urging the American government
to release at least some of the food from the warehouses in Kenya, while they worked
out the new rules before the food rots. The officials said that even if they wanted to
bypass the American government and ship in food from other countries, which would cost
millions and millions of dollars, it would be impossible to get it to Somalia in time,
and that the American sacks of grain sitting in Mombasa were the only solution to averting
a widespread famine. The urgency of the situation has been communicated, said one United Nations
official in Nairobi. Basically, USAID, USAID, the United States
Agency for International Development, has to come through, one way or the other, again,
has to come through, one way or the other, or perhaps over a million Somalis will starve
to death. That s the facts, and that s the way it is. It s called famine, and this is
a good question. Would it be better to release some of the food instead of letting it rot
in warehouses, even though some of it may be diverted, or is it better to withhold the
food, and perhaps that over a million people starve to death as soon as this dissembles?
That is a huge dilemma, and a very good question. And again, it s called famine, and there s
much more, something much more going on here on top of all this, and these are more signs
of the end times transition days. The transition must happen. It is happening. It s an ongoing
process. It s happening all around the world, day by day, and there are all kinds of signs.
