About $1 billion is poured into Somalia each year for humanitarian, development and security projects, but some of the aid that is wasted, stolen or diverted may be helping feed the 20-year-old conflict instead of ending it.
During a recent trip to Somalia and in interviews in neighboring Kenya where U.N. officials and aid workers are based, The Associated Press learned about numerous cases of wasteful spending, corruption and dubious payoffs.
— In order to carry out projects in central Somalia, staff working for the Danish Refugee Council paid protection money to Islamist insurgents who are battling the beleaguered government.
— Bullets bought by international donors and intended for Somali soldiers were sold on open markets, becoming a "significant source of supply" for insurgents, according to a confidential report given to the U.N. Sanctions Committee this year and obtained by AP.
— A $600,000 project by an international aid group was suspended after a government minister demanded a cut.
The problems facing foreign donors trying to rebuild a country wracked by an insurgency are not new: Both Iraq and Afghanistan have seen theft, waste and mismanagement on aid projects. Somalia receives less cash, but there is also far less oversight. Those who are supposed to ensure the aid is properly delivered can't even enter the country because it's too dangerous.
Some of the aid money provides food, shelter and medicine for desperate Somalis but a lot is wasted or stolen. How much, no one knows, but the anecdotal evidence is alarming.
"The cases that are known are just the tip of the iceberg. This problem has been a major contributor to the Somali conflict," said professor Stig Jarle Hansen, an expert in war economies working at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
He said donors often paid to train and equip Somali police or soldiers, but then didn't pay them, so the men preyed on the local population instead.Continued
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