A Somali woman collects food aid at a refugee camp. A report claims much of the aid intended for starving Somali people is being held to ransom by corrupt distributors
Somalia is now known as one of the most dangerous places in the world with pirates roaming off the horn of Africa and hijacking cargo ships that are held for ransom.
A British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, have been held hostage for over four months after being snatched from their yacht as they sailed toward Tanzania.
The damming report into corruption in the UN's food programme was made by the organisation's own Security Council.
It follows claims by that millions of pounds raised through Bob Geldof's Live Aid project in the 1980s ended up being used by guerrillas fighting the Ethiopian Government.
According to the UN report some 3.7m people in Somalia are dependent on foreign food aid distributed by their World Food Programme.
But it says the distribution is beset by rampant corruption on a local level.
Transport lorries carrying food are routinely hijacked and forced to run the gauntlet of roadblocks manned by militias and insurgents.
The report even names a local businessman, Abdulkadir M. Nur involved in the distribution process who hijacks his own trucks and later sells the food on the black market.
The report said his wife plays a prominent role in a local aid agency and signs off reports on food distribution.
The report also reveals that three Somali businessmen who hold the pds160m worth of contracts to distribute food are suspected of links to Islamic insurgents.
'Some humanitarian resources, notably food aid, have been diverted to military uses,' the report said.
'A handful of Somali contractors for aid agencies have formed a cartel and become important power brokers -- some of whom channel their profits or the aid itself -- directly to armed opposition groups.'
The report says that fraud is widespread with about 30 percent of aid skimmed by local partners and local World Food Program personnel.
A further 10 percent is taken by the ground transporters and 5 to 10 percent by the armed group in control of the area where it is to be distributed.
In January, the US halted tens of millions of dollars of aid shipments to southern Somalia because of fears it was falling into the wrong hands.
American officials believe that some aid may have been taken by members of Al Shabab, the most militant of Somalia’s insurgent groups.
The Security Report calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Programme's Somalia operations.
The World Food Programme's deputy executive director, Amir Abdulla, said officials have not seen the report.
Abdulla said:'We will investigate all of the allegations as we have always done in the past if questions have been raised about our operations.'
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