Wednesday, 17 February 2010

US aid rules in Somalia are impossible, says UN envoy

A displaced child in Somalia
In one area the UN estimates 70% of residents need food aid
The US has imposed impossible conditions on aid agencies in Somalia, a UN envoy to the country says.
Humanitarian co-ordinator Mark Bowden said the US was trying to ensure that aid was not diverted to Islamist insurgents fighting the government.
But he said this had politicised their work in a country where hundreds of thousands of people rely on food aid.
Rebels from the hardline al-Shabab group already control much of the capital city and the country's south.
The BBC's East Africa correspondent Peter Greste says the humanitarian crisis has worsened recently amid rumours that a major battle for Mogadishu is about to begin.
About 15,000 people have fled the capital in the past two weeks alone.
Al-Qaeda links
Mr Bowden says ordinary civilians are suffering because of a recent US policy aimed at trying to keep food aid away from al-Shabab militants.
Map
"The measures they [the US government] have asked the NGOs and the UN agencies to take - some have been OK and others are seen to be essentially impractical and impossible for us to report on and meet," he said.
He added: "Our concern is that what we're seeing is a politicisation of humanitarian issues.
"And I think that if we can get it back from a political agenda to a more practical humanitarian agenda, we'll all be better off."
The US is Somalia's biggest aid donor - giving $270m (£171m) in 2008, but that figure was almost halved last year.
"We're no longer involved in a discussion about the practicalities of delivering humanitarian assistance with proper safeguards," he said.
"[Now it is] an issue of where assistance can be provided on political grounds."
The US has long accused al-Shabab of being al-Qaeda's proxy in the region.
But the group had denied the links until last month when it released a statement promising to "combine" its local jihad with al-Qaeda's global fight.
Somalia has been wracked by violence for much of the past 20 years. It has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
On Tuesday, the UN said it had opened a new refugee camp in Ethiopia - the fifth camp for Somalis fleeing the violence.
The UN says about 200 Somalis are crossing the border every day.

No comments:

Why cows may be hiding something but AI can spot it

  By Chris Baraniuk Technology of Business reporter Published 22 hours ago Share IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Herd animals like...