Somalia: How Much Food Aid Is Being Stolen?

August 17, 2011 from Al Jazeera English

The UN World Food Programme is investigating claims that massive amounts of food aid is being stolen in Somalia, but has denied reports that half of all aid is being stolen and sold on the black market. This, amid a famine that has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions displaced. How can aid agencies continue humanitarian work in a country where food supplies fail to reach the needy?

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Somalia

Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has a population... Explore this topic

Famine

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, population unbalance, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Nearly every c... Explore this topic

Humanitarian aid

Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintai... Explore this topic

2011 Horn of Africa famine

Since mid-July 2011, a severe drought has been affecting the entire East Africa region. Said to be "the worst in 60 years", the drought has caused a severe food crisis across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya that threatens the livelihood of 9.5 million people. Many refuge... Explore this topic

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the food assistance branch of the United Nations, and it is the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger. WFP provides food, on average, to 90 million people per year, 58 million of whom are children. From its headquarters in Rome... Explore this topic

Black market

A black market or underground economy is the market in which illegal goods are traded. Due to the nature of the goods traded, the market itself is forced to operate outside the formal economy, supported by the established state power. Typically the totality of such activity is... Explore this topic

Aid agency

An aid agency is an organisation dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government, between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizations Explore this topic

Famine relief

Famine relief is an organized effort to reduce starvation in a region in which there is famine. A famine is a phenomenon in which a large proportion of the population of a region or country are so undernourished that death by starvation becomes increasingly common. In spite of... Explore this topic

Aid

In international relations, aid is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Humanitarianism and altruism are at least partly an objective for the giving of aid. It may have other functions as well: it may be given a... Explore this topic

Humanitarian crisis

A humanitarian crisis is an event or series of events which represents a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people, usually over a wide area. Armed conflicts, epidemics, famine, natural disasters and other major ... Explore this topic

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Somalia

Famine

Humanitarian aid

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