New York - At least half of the World Food Programme's food supplies to Somalia's needy people has been diverted by unscrupulous contractors, radical Islamist militants and even UN staff in the country, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Times said an unpublished report by the UN Security Council would recommend that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launch an investigation into WFP's operations in Somalia considering the severity of the food aid diversion.
The report would suggest that WFP 'rebuild the food distribution system - which serves at least 2.5 million people and whose aid was worth about 485 million dollars in 2009 - from scratch to break what it describes as a corrupt cartel of Somali distributors,' the Times said.
The Somali transitional government, which is battling domestic insurgency as well as piracy off its coast, was preparing a major military offensive to retake the capital Mogadishu from Islamist militants alleged to have ties with al-Qaeda. The Times said the United States is providing aid to the government, while a UN mission is assisting it to end decades of unrest and anarchy in the country.
The report claimed local Somali authorities have collaborated with pirates and Somali government ministers who sold diplomatic visas for trips to Europe to the highest bidders, including pirates and insurgents. The transitional government has rejected the accusations.
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