One of the UN’s largest international relief efforts is under investigation after it emerged that thousands of sacks of food aid were being diverted from starving refugees and openly sold for profit.
The head of the UN’s $955 million (£580 million) aid operation in Somalia has launched an inquiry after being shown footage showing tonnes of food bearing the World Food Programme (WFP) logo widely on sale in Mogadishu, the capital.
Stacks of bags of maize and wheat and tins of cooking oil — marked “not for re-sale” and bearing the UN stamp — are on sale from ten warehouses and 15 shops in the city’s main market.
About 45,000 tonnes of WFP food are shipped to Somalia from Kenya every month. Mogadishu traders told Channel 4 News that they bought their supplies straight from UN staff. “We buy [food] aid from WFP staff directly or from people they employ,” one market trader said.
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Updates:
4:40 pm EDT, June 15th, 2009 — Khartoum arms ‘used in UN raid’
The UN is FUBAR. (f**ked up beyond all recognition)
FUBAR, indeed. And corrupt to the bone.
It is time for major western nations to cut off funding.
mid island mike
Hello CTV and CBC, Lloyd Axeworthy and David Lewis. Food aid is abused. You insist that Dambisa Mayo is out of synch with reality. Well this proves how out of synch your opinions are regading abuse of the food aid system in the third world. I wonder if the MSM will notice.
Wonder if that man from China has resurfaced in all this. Remember his involvement in the Oil for Food scam in Iraq.
Time to get out of the UN.