By Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – Relations between Somalia and the U.S. hit a new low after Washington said it would pause further assistance that benefits the government in Mogadishu amid a dispute over the fate of tons of food aid.
The U.S. State Department’s Under Secretary of Foreign Assistance in an X post on Wednesday said Somali government officials had destroyed a U.S.-funded World Food Programme warehouse and illegally seized donor-funded food aid for vulnerable Somalis.
As a result, he said, Washington was suspending aid to Somalia. The value of the aid was not immediately clear.
Somalia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday disputed the assertion that the U.S.-provided aid had been stolen, and said it remained in WFP custody.
It said expansion and repurposing works had been taking place in the Mogadishu Port area, where the warehouse originally holding the aid – known as the blue warehouse – was located. Those operations “have not affected the custody, management, or distribution of humanitarian assistance,” it added.
A WFP spokesperson said the blue warehouse had been demolished by port authorities and that WFP was working with the authorities to address the issue and ensure the safe storage of food.
“The warehouse contained 75 metric tons of specialized nutritious foods intended for the treatment of malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls and young children. The warehouse is crucial for WFP’s emergency operations at a moment when almost a quarter of the population (4.4 million people) are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse,” the spokesperson said.
WFP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it had possession of the aid.
A Mogadishu Port Authority shipment handover note, seen by Reuters and dated Wednesday, says WFP took over the food that had been “earlier shifted from the blue warehouse” to another warehouse. The note appears to be signed by a WFP Somalia official and includes a handwritten comment saying WFP will confirm final receipt of the food once a lab test confirms it is suitable for human consumption.
According to a letter to the WFP country director seen by Reuters, Somalia’s Ministry of Ports and Marine Transport in November provided official notice that the program was required to vacate the blue warehouse by December 31 as a result of plans to relocate port offices.
MINNESOTA TENSION
In Trump’s second term, the Republican president has pursued a hardline immigration policy that has posed a stumbling block to relations between Washington and Mogadishu. The Trump administration has barred citizens of Somalia from entering the U.S., and last month said it was auditing immigration cases involving U.S. citizens of Somali origin to detect fraud.
It has also leveled fraud allegations against some nonprofit groups in Minnesota’s Somali community, with at least 56 people pleading guilty since federal prosecutors under the previous Democratic administration of Joe Biden started investigating childcare and other social service programs in the Somali community.
The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday that any resumption in assistance would be dependent on Somalia’s government taking accountability and remedial steps.
Since returning to office last year, the Trump administration has more widely slashed U.S. aid spending, shifting the U.S. priority in Africa from assistance to trade.
On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in South Sudan said it was suspending assistance to an area in South Sudan and considering significant reductions in another area after what it said was South Sudanese officials’ interference and the exploitation and theft of U.S. aid.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Ammu Kannampilly and Giulia Paravicini in Nairobi; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Rosalba O’Brien)
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