AP: Somalia famine aid stolen, for sale
Sacks of grain, peanut butter snacks and other food staples meant for starving Somalis are being stolen and sold in markets, an Associated Press investigation has found, raising concerns that thieving businessmen are undermining international famine relief efforts in this nearly lawless country.
The UN's World Food Program acknowledged for the first time that it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months.
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Underscoring the perilous security throughout the food distribution chain, donated food is not even safe once it has been given to the hungry in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital of Mogadishu. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp, where several aid groups distribute food, said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.
"They tell us they will keep it for us and force us to give them our food," said refugee Halima Sheikh Abdi. "We can't refuse to cooperate because if we do, they will force us out of the camp, and then you don't know what to do and eat. It's happened to many people already."
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In Mogadishu markets, vast piles of food are for sale with stamps on them from the WFP, the US government aid arm USAID, the Japanese government and the Kuwaiti government. The AP found eight sites where thousands of sacks of food aid were being sold in bulk. Other food aid was also for sale in numerous smaller stores. Among the items being sold were Kuwaiti dates and biscuits, corn, grain, and Plumpy'nut - a fortified peanut butter designed for starving children.
An official in Mogadishu with extensive knowledge of the food trade said he believes a massive amount of aid is being stolen - perhaps up to half of recent aid deliveries. The percentage had been lower, he said, but in recent weeks the flood of aid into the capital with little or no controls has created a bonanza for businessmen.
The official, like the businessmen interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals.
The AP could not verify the official's claims. WFP said that it rejected the scale of diversions alleged by the official.
At one of the sites for stolen food aid - the former water agency building at a location called "Kilometre Five" - about a dozen corrugated iron sheds are stacked with sacks of food aid. Outside, women sell food from open 50kg sacks, and traders load the food onto carts or vehicles under the indifferent eyes of local officials.
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WFP said it was "confident the vast majority of humanitarian food is reaching starving people in Mogadishu," adding that AP reports of "thousands" of bags of stolen food would equal less than 1 percent of one month's distribution for Somalia.
Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said the government does not believe food aid is being stolen on a large scale, but if such reports come to light, the government "will do everything in our power" to bring action in a military court.
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At the Badbado camp, Ali Said Nur said he was also a victim of food thefts. He said he twice received two sacks of maize, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader.
"You don't have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here," he said.
Really now, who is surprised that bags of donated food wind up in market stalls somewhere? Probably only those same people that don't know that the t-shirts and old clothes they donate to the Salvation Army and other orgs get sold in bulk "to companies for export to third-world countries." How exactly does a donee steal a charitable gift given w/o any return consideration anyway?
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Reuters feature on Madobe's Raskamboni militia being supported by (proxy) Kenya: Kenya looks to Somali troops, militia to create border buffer
Keen to avoid a spillover of violence by al Qaeda-trained foreign jihadists seeking haven in Somalia as well as al Shabaab rebels entrenched in the south, Nairobi wants to create a buffer zone.
Kenya has already trained thousands of newly recruited Somali soldiers to man the frontier. It also provides logistical and intelligence support to Somali government troops.
"Dhobley is the first area we secured, pushing out al Shabaab. We expect in the coming days to push them out of the region," said the soft-faced Sheikh Dahir, one of Madobe's lieutenants.
Madobe was a senior member of an Islamist administration routed from power by Ethiopian forces in late 2006, early 2007. He later turned his guns on his former allies to side with the U.N.-backed government.
Dhobley's buildings carry the pock-marked scars of intense gunbattles in April this year when Raskamboni and government forces regained control of the town from the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab group.
Another fighter says Kenya provided weaponry.
"They (Kenya) help with many things including guns and bullets. Without that support, how could we have beaten them?," said a Raskamboni intelligence officer, Major Abdikadir Bashir.
Dual track policy - guns and bullets.
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While much of the western media reporting still conveys the perception that H.S.M. pulled out of Mogadishu nearly two weeks ago,
Shabelle Media: Somali forces, Al shabaab fight in Mogadishu
Heavy battles between Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers and Al shabaab fighters on Monday night rocked parts of northern Mogadishu, witnesses said Tuesday.
Most of combat took place in neighborhoods of Yaqashid and Karan north of the capital as the crackling of machine could viciously be heard in many parts of Mogadishu.
Witnesses said at least four people have been killed and dozens more injured during in overnight firefight.
Reports say that Al shabaab has launched hit and run attacks before the fighting flared up.
Shabelle Media:
Heavy fighting between Somali government forces and Al shabaab on Friday took in parts of Mogadishu, witnesses said.-- -- --
At least two people have been killed and three others injured during the battles, locals said.
Daily Nation: Amisom seizes arms factory and ammunition left by Al-Shabaab
The ammunition was found at Bakara market...-- -- --
Amisom stated that it uncovered 137 rockets of 155 mm each and had loaded them in trucks before removing the ammunition from the market.
The peacekeepers were assisted by contracted Western experts in explosives, urban warfare and how to conduct DNA tests.
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The Western experts have dug out explosives that were haphazardly abandoned in some places, according to residents in areas abandoned by Al-Shabaab fighters in Mogadishu.
Xinhua:
The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) on Tuesday said it requires military equipment in quantity and quality to help the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) accomplish its mission efficiently.
After holding a closed session on Somalia at the AU Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ramtane Lamamra, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security told Xinhua that Uganda and Burundi have pledged to deploy further troops to AMISOM.
Lamamra said Djibouti is also offering a battalion with one hundred trainers...
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"We have more pledges from Uganda and Burundi; we already have 9000, and 3000 to the ceiling, and the pledge by the two countries is enough to meet the ceiling, 12, 000," he said.
"The focus now should be on the equipment which is deadly needed for us to make sure that AMISOM will enhance its efficiency, will expand its authority, and will be able to accomplish its mission the best possible condition," said the Commissioner.
He said helicopters, equipment used to attack tactical helicopters and member of engineering equipment are among the military equipment needed for the mission. [sic]
That last sentence is a nonsensical jumble of words. Was he really that unclear or did something get lost in the translation?
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Time's Global Spin blog lives up to its name: Somalia: A Very Man-Made Disaster
Delivering food aid is a dirty business, rife with pilfering, and like governments and aid contractors, al Shabab used to steal a proportion of the food that was delivered to its areas, either to eat itself or sell in the market. But with al Shabab's listing, US aid officials and any aid worker handling US food suddenly had a legal obligation to ensure none of benefitted al Shabab, even inadvertently. The way they dealt with that was to suspend most aid to southern Somalia by the end of 2009. Al Shabab then added its own block by banning WFP, which it accused of being a US puppet, from its territory in January 2010.
The result is that not only are there now very few assistance operations in southern Somalia, there is no pipeline in place through which to funnel large of amounts of food aid in the event of an emergency. Perhaps realizing it had unwittingly helped cause a famine, earlier this month the US tried to reassure aid workers that it would not prosecute them if they accidentally ended up aiding or abetting al Shabab.
To use the word unwittingly to describe the highly controversial decision to block food and aid shipments to the insurgent's support population implies that the effects of that policy were somehow unintended and unknowable. Nonsense. Population control is one of the classic counterinsurgency tactics - draining the swamp by punishing the civilian population that supports the insurgents and forcing them to seek sustenance/benefaction/protection from the other side, in this case the TFG. It also theoretically starves out the enemy, leaving them concentrated, identifiable, and subject to targeted military hits. Time's blogger seemingly cannot fathom the notion that the US would have indeed intended this to be the outcome yet has no problem then pointing out that "officials from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) aren't shy about saying that they consider the famine, which has substantially weakened al Shabab, a real strategic boost." In the public arena, the US knows it would never be able to get away w/ saying thus or continuing the two-year blockade to the areas that were the first to be declared as suffering famine, and so they pledge lots of money toward "humanitarian" efforts in the HoA, milking the media for all it's worth while continuing to arm and finance the conflict and the foreign-created & installed unpopular transitional government at the root of the problem. Spin indeed.
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AP: Surveillance drone crashes in Somali capital
A surveillance drone has crashed in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
An Associated Press reporter saw pieces of the drone, which was shaped like a small plane, before it was removed by African Union soldiers. It had crashed into a house in the city center.
VOA:
Security officials in Somalia say a drone crashed in the capital, Mogadishu, on Friday, but they did not provide details about who was operating the unmanned aircraft.
Officials told say the drone crashed into a house near the Libyan Embassy on Friday. The site is located in the city's southwestern Hodan district.
Authorities, who asked not to be identified, said African Union troops and an unidentified group of men took away the wreckage.
ENA: AU, east African military wing sign deal to deploy troops to Somalia
The African Union Commission (AUC) and the Eastern Africa Standby Force Coordination Mechanism (EASFCOM) signed on Thursday (18 August) a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the capabilities of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in the areas of operational planning, logistics planning and operations, training, medical support and assistance.
According to a statement THE AU sent to ENA (Ethiopian News Agency), THE AU commissioner for peace and security, Ambassador Ramtane Lamamra, and the Eastern Africa Standby Brigade Coordination Mechanism (EASBRICOM) director at the AU Headquarters, Maj-Gen (retd) Cyrille Ndayirukiye, signed the agreement.
It (the statement) said the MoU is a milestone in the operation of the African Standby Force (ASF) as it will provide the framework for the first ever deployment of an ASF regional standby force.
It is to be recalled that EASFCOM`s contribution is a follow-up to the recommendation of the seventh extraordinary meeting of the eastern Africa region council of ministers held in Addis Ababa on 28 January 2011 to deploy EASF capabilities within AMISOM, the statement noted.
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