Somalia: UN report’s key findings
Updated on 11 March 2010
Channel 4 News has obtained a recent UN monitoring group report on Somalia. Foreign affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman highlights the key findings of the report, which is not expected to be officially published until next week.
The following are extracts from the report:
Diversion of World Food Programme Aid
"Percentages vary, but sources interviewed by the monitoring group describe an approximate diversion of 30 per cent for the implementing partner and local World Food Programme (WFP) personnel, 10 per cent for the ground transporter, and 5-10 per cent for the armed group in control of the area (according to a WFP spokesman, al-Shabaab control 95 per cent of WFP's areas of operation.)"
"Some humanitarian resources, notably food aid, have been diverted to military uses. A handful of Somali contractors for aid agencies have formed a cartel and become important powerbrokers - some of whom channel their profits - or the aid itself - directly to armed opposition groups."
"The Adaani family, one of the three largest contractors for the WFP in Somalia, has long been a financier of armed groups."
"According to WFP transporters and other sources...the system offers a variety of opportunities for diversion all along the supply chain."
"Diversion involving collusion between ground transporters and implementing partners is a common form of fraud - especially where transporters and implementing partners are actually owned or controlled by the same people."
"Some implementing partners possess protected warehouses located near Somali markets where diverted food can be readily sold."
"For over 12 years, delivery of WFP food aid has been dominated by three individuals and their family members or close associates: Abukar Omer Adaani, Abdulqaadir Mohamed Nuur "Enow" and Mohamed Deylaaf...on account of their contracts with WFP, these three men have become some of the wealthiest and influential individuals in Somalia."
"In its investigations into the principal contractors of humanitarian assistance, the Monitoring Group experienced obstructionist non-cooperation by the WFP Somalia office."
"This was only mitigated somewhat by the direct intervention of the WFP Inspector-General in the course of his own investigations into diversion."
"WFP should take immediate steps to dismantle the de facto cartel that has monopolised its Somali operations for so many years and to distance itself from those business interests and individuals manifestly aligned with armed groups or criminal activities."
Alleged visa fraud in Somalia’s government
"Some Transitional Federal Government Ministers and Members of Parliament abuse their official privileges to engage in large-scale visa fraud, smuggling illegal migrants to Europe and other destinations, in exchange for hefty payments."
"Somali Ministers, Members of Parliament, diplomats and freelance 'brokers' have transformed access to foreign visas into a growth industry matched possibly only by piracy, selling visas for $10-15,000 each."
"Among those who can afford to pay such sums are individuals who profit from piracy, and leaders of armed groups."
Somali government forces
"Despite infusions of foreign training and assistance, TFG forces remain ineffective, disorganised and corrupt - a composite of independent militias loyal to senior government officials and military officers who profit from the business of war"
United States' weapons supplies
"Most of the American consignment was ammunition and only a limited supply of infantry weapons in order to minimise losses. Nevertheless, there are widespread reports of TFG forces selling ammunition, and weapons from the same consignment appear to have ended up on the market."
Recommendations
"The Security Council urge the Secretary General to initiate a genuinely independent investigation of the WFP Somalia country office and for WFP to revise its internal procedures."
"The European governments take urgent steps to investigate incidents of immigration fraud and take measures to better coordinate consular functions among their embassies in East Africa....a ban should be placed on Somali Ministers, MPs and officials who make fraudulent requests for travel."
