As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff, according to a new Security Council report.
The report, which has not yet been made public but was shown to The New York Times, outlines a host of problems so grave that it recommends Secretary General Ban Ki-moon open an independent investigation into the World Food Program there. It suggests that the program rebuild the food distribution system — which serves at least 2.5 million people — from scratch to break what it describes as a corrupt cartel of Somali distributors. More on Half of food aid to Somalia diverted
If democracy is a government of the people, kleptocracy is a government of thieves. Last week the secret world of Meles Zenawi’s kleptocracy, famine aid-sharking and money laundering in Ethiopia was exposed by two of his former comrades-in-arms in the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Gebremedhin Araya, a former treasurer and TPLF co-founder Dr. Aregawi Berhe, detailed the scam used to swindle, hustle and con millions of dollars from international famine relief organizations in the mid-1980s. More on Ethiopia: Licensed to Steal
Last week, a couple of interesting political statements grabbed the cyber headlines. One was a truly entertaining piece entitled “Letter from Ethiopia,” by the indomitable Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega. Eskinder’s “Letter” sought to make sense of the power jockeying that is apparently taking place backstage to replace dictator Meles Zenawi. More on Waiting for Godot to Leave?
ASMARA (Reuters) – The United States accused Eritrea on Monday of working to destabilize the Horn of Africa region and urged President Isaias Afwerki to bring a halt to what it called a threat to international peace. More on U.S. condemns Eritrea for “destabilizing” role
It has been said that Africa’s natural resources — oil, diamonds, minerals — have often proven to be sources of woe, suffering and misery than wealth, prosperity and progress for the people of the continent. What should have been a blessing for Africa’s poor has become a curse of corruption, malfeasance and bad governance. Could Africa’s new found wealth in farmlands prove to be a curse once again? If so, how could it be averted? More on Tear Down the Stonewall of Secrecy!
Background
On December 23, 2009, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed arms embargo on tyrant Afewarki and his military junta for illegally supplying arms to Al-Shabab group, who are battling the internationally recognized transitional government of Somalia. In his usual finger pointing at others, Afewarki repeatedly kept on downplaying the sanctions as meaningless and even refuted as futile and as a CIA-conspiracy until last week. More on Eritrea – Panic over UNSC-Sanctions & AU-Support
Introduction:
Elias Kifle of Ethiopian review, the well known Issayas Afewerki boot-licker in Diaspora, is an impostor amidst the well known Ethiopian community in Washington DC. Usually, he pretends as a stout Ethiopian but in vain. As I heard from several other sources who know him closer, he is actually a hired agent paid by Afewerki and his PFDJ-military-junta to mislead Diaspora Ethiopians on issues pertaining to Eritrean realities and what Afewerki conkers to preside on regional matters. More on Ethiopia – Elias Kifle Pleading to Protest against UNSC-Sanctions?
Last week, in a piece reporting on the eerie silence of Western diplomats in Addis Abeba on Birtukan Midekssa, the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history and Ethiopia’s # 1 political prisoner, Xan Rice, a reporter for the Guardian wrote: More on Western Diplomatic Omerta in Ethiopia
