The UN World Food Programme denies allegations that more than half of the food aid it delivers to Somalia is diverted. A critical report by a fellow UN organisation, the Monitoring Group on Somalia, says most of the supplies are falling into the hands of people who don't deserve it.

But Greg Barrow of the World Food Programme told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the allegations by the Monitoring Group are unfounded.

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"As far as we know from our own monitoring methods, the food that we bring into Somalia is reaching its destination," he says. "We carried out our own investigation last year and we found that only a small amount of food supplies was being diverted in some areas, but nowhere more than two percent."

Diversion
However, the Monitoring Group on Somalia says that food aid in Somalia is distributed through various implementing partners of the WFP, who each divert the aid and share the proceeds. According to the Monitoring Group, roughly 30 percent is for the implementing partner, ten percent for the ground transporter and up to ten percent for armed groups who are in control of the area.

The remaining 40 to 50 percent of the aid is distributed to the population, according to the report. "The system offers a variety of opportunities for diversion all along the supply chain," the report says.

It also condemns the distribution of the food, which is allegedly carried out by only three Somali transport companies – a claim Mr Burrow describes as a “factual inaccuracy”. According to the report, the contracts are worth millions of dollars and the Monitoring Group says they have made the owners of these companies very rich. "For more than 12 years, delivery of WFP aid has been dominated by three individuals and their family members who have become some of the wealthiest and most influential individuals in Somalia", the Monitoring Group says.

The WFP admits this claim "raises some questions". "Until we've had the chance to review this, we felt it made more sense to suspend any new contracts going forward", says Mr Barrow. "It means we have to find other distribution channels. We're talking to other transporters to see if they can pick up some of the capacity".

No access
Mr Barrow says the WFP is not in a position to look into the bank accounts of these contractors to see if the Monitoring Group's claims about their profits are true. "As a humanitarian aid organisation, we have no access to these accounts. We can't and won't review the financial position of the individual contractors."

The Monitoring Group on Somalia also writes that some food aid is going to armed groups that control the areas where the food is distributed. It asserts that the provision of food aid has become “a militarised business, with businessmen maintaining their own militias in order to protect their warehouses, convoys and distribution points”. The United States has voiced concerns that some foreign aid to Somalia was actually falling into the hands of al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgent group which controls much of southern Somalia and parts of the capital Mogadishu.