NEW YORK: Half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from the poor to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local UN staff members, according to a new Security Council report.
The report, which has not yet been made public but was shown to The New York Times by diplomats, outlines a host of problems so grave it recommends Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Program's Somalia operations.
It suggests the program rebuild from scratch the food distribution system - which serves at least 2.5 million people and whose aid was worth about $US485 million last year - to break what it describes as a corrupt cartel of Somali distributors.
In addition to the diversion of food aid, regional Somali authorities are collaborating with pirates who hijack ships along the lawless coast, the report says.
It says Somali government ministers have auctioned off diplomatic visas for trips to Europe to the highest bidders, some of whom may have been pirates or insurgents.
The World Food Program said it had not yet seen the report but would investigate its conclusions once it was presented to the Security Council next week.
The report comes as Somalia's government, with US military aid, is readying a military offensive to combat an Islamist insurgency linked to al-Qa'ida and retake Mogadishu, the nation's largely lawless capital.
But the report says Somalia's security forces "remain ineffective, disorganised and corrupt - a composite of independent militias loyal to senior government officials and military officers who profit from the business of war".
One US official recently conceded Somalia's "best hope" was the government's new military chief, General Mohamed Gelle Kahiye, who until a few months ago was an assistant manager at McDonald's in Germany.
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