EXCLUSIVE: State Department To Permanently End Aid To Somalia After Warehouse Of Food Disappears

The State Department will officially terminate foreign assistance to Somalia after the African nation’s government demolished a warehouse containing 76 metric tons of food donated by America, a senior administration official told The Daily Wire.

On January 3, “at the direction of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (HSM) and the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), authorities at Mogadishu Port demolished the World Food Programme (WFP) Emergency Response Warehouse with no prior notification or coordination with international donor countries, including the United States,” a diplomatic cable from the United States Embassy in Somalia dated January 6 said.

The move “likely resulted in the destruction of these emergency food supplies,” and was approved by Somali’s president over the objections of the World Food Programme, the cable said. The apparent cause, it said, was corruption: the Mogadishu Port is managed by a Turkish company that wanted to expand, and Somalia’s Minister of Ports “acts as [Turkey’s] primary agent in Somalia.” Turkey has increasingly plated a large role in Somalia industries, “often operating under corrupt contracts that uniformly favor Turkish interests,” the cable said.

An additional 1,650 metric tons of additional commodities were scheduled to arrive in early January, and had to be stored in an alternative warehouse. The World Food Programe, a project of the United Nations, said it will notify Somalia that the “demolition constitutes a breach of UN diplomatic protocols,” the cable said.

The embassy in Somalia requested that the Secretary of State “strongly consider pausing, canceling, or postponing U.S. assistance to [Somalia] until it returns or compensates the United States and other international donors for the stolen food assistance items,” the cable said.

The State Department announced on January 7 that it has “paused all ongoing U.S. assistance programs which benefit the Somali Federal Government. Any resumption of assistance will be dependent upon the Somali Federal Government taking accountability for its unacceptable actions.” But the administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, went further, saying that all aid will be permanently and officially ended by May.

The ports minister issued an eviction notice to the WFP in December, but the Somali government had later said the warehouse could still be used while a final decision was pending. The port manager claimed that the food was moved to two containers and remained accessible, but WFP said that was not true, and that it is likely ruined because it requires specialized storage.

The food was donated by Americans under the Title II “Food for Peace” program and International Disaster Assistance, while the World Food Programme administers its distribution. Hunter Biden served as chairman of the World Food Program USA, which supports its work, from 2011 to 2015.

The disappearance of the Food for Peace food due to apparent Somali corruption comes as Somalis who migrated to the United States by claiming refuge status have themselves defrauded the U.S. government, including by asking to be paid by the government to watch their own children or their neighbors’ children, and plunged cities like Minneapolis into their own instability.

A member of Somalia’s parliament and its Foreign Affairs committee, Abdillahi Hashi Abib, wrote to United States officials saying that 90% of Somalia’s humanitarian assistance comes from America, and that the Somali Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA) has been “defrauding” it because “the funds have been captured and monetized by a single-family network and its clan affiliates.”

For example, three brothers of the agency’s chairman, Mohamud Macallin Abdulle, each receive $15,000 a month salaries, paid through their wives, he said, and the Finance Department and Training Unit are both run by the his uncles.

He said that “food donations from the US, EU, UAE, Qatar, and China are systematically sold in Magadishu markets after staged photo-ops,” in which starving people are paid $5 to pay for photos with the food, before it is taken away from them.

By diverting aid for 8,000 to 12,000 families, the clain generates half a million dollars a month for itself, he said. Foreign aid money has also been wasted as Somalis inflate the cost of items, charging $300,000 for ambulances and fire trucks that cost only $100,000, he said.

“The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and his extended family are beneficiaries of a system that has systematically looted U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance” by “installing a close relative… at the apex of Somalia’s humanitarian system,” he wrote.