Somalia: Islamists kill NGO workers and burn food and medicines

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According to the Monitoring Group, some UN agencies working in Somalia suspect that several local organizations which  they have funded and through which they have distributed aid, were giving money to al Shabaab, payments that the Islamist group called “taxes” .

The report details several cases where members of al Shabaab have asked for bribes to the UN and aid agencies in exchange for allowing them to work in rebel areas and in some cases, burning food and medicine when they didn’t get the required money.

Al Shabaab promised this July to lift the prohibition on distributing food aid, imposed in 2010, but then said that it will maintain restrictions on the World Food Programme (WFP) the UN and key NGOs.

The report of the observation that Al Shabaab commander gave a speech in late 2010 in which he warned that the Somalis do not accept foreign aid. “You can eat whatever you want except the food received as aid,” he said.

The WFP has said that can not access more than 2 million Somalis at risk of starvation in areas controlled by the Islamist militia. Although try to reach these areas over the next week, said that if this fails will be raised as a last resort, throw the food out of airplanes.

…According to the report, commanders of the insurgent group asked humanitarian organizations for an initial payment of $ 10,000 to allow them access to their controlled territory and then make them pay another $ 10,000  to register themselves (as “NGOs”) and another $ 6,000 every six months.

The rebels are also demanding the payment of 20 percent of the value of all foods and medicines that pass through their areas and impose a 10 percent tax on all vehicles.

via Los islamistas de Al Shabaab matan a trabajadores de ONGS y prenden fuego a alimentos y medicinas.

Related:

• Horn of Africa: 400,000 crammed into refugee camp fleeing worst regional drought in decades (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Horn of Africa: UNHCR calls for aid to Somalia in worst food crisis(teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)
• Somali group bans samosas (teaandpolitics.wordpress.com)

Horn of Africa: 400,000 crammed into refugee camp fleeing worst regional drought in six decades

We’ll see what effects this has, on Islamism and Islamic terrorism:

An outdoor school at Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Image via Wikipedia

Fleeing the worst regional drought in six decades, some 400,000 people have left Somalia and other nations of the Horn of Africa for a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Thousands are now arriving every day at the camp, whose capacity is only 90,000.

“More than two million babies in the Horn of Africa are malnourished and need urgent assistance to save their lives, L’Osservatore Romano reports. “A half a million of these babies are in imminent danger for survival, with long-term consequences for their physical and mental development. More generally, it is estimated that ten million people need immediate humanitarian assistance, more than double the number that UN agencies are currently able to assist.”

via Catholic Culture : Latest Headlines : ‘The worst disaster’: 400,000 crammed into refugee camp.

Somalia: half of UN aid sent is stolen

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The Guardian:

Up to half the food aid meant to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people in Somalia is being stolen, according to a leaked UN security council report.

The report, seen by the New York Times, says the food is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local UN workers. It advises the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to open an independent investigation into the organisation’s world food programme operations in Somalia.

The losses are blamed on improper food distribution and the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure.

The bags of food have to be driven through roadblocks manned by a bewildering array of militias, insurgents and bandits.

Not only are kidnappings and executions common, the country’s insecurity also makes it difficult for senior UN officials to travel to the country to check on procedures. Investigators who do go there run the risk of relying for protection on the same people they are examining.

The worst of it all is that the own UN workers are stealing it. We will see what Ban Ki-Moon does about this, but remember that UN budget is paid with our own taxes, so these guys are stealing us too.

In the end, there is only one question that is important here: what’s going to do the UN with this?

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• UN: Most Somalian Food Aid Goes To Islamic Militants, UN Workers And Contractors (riehlworldview.com)
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