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The European Union (EU) has temporarily suspended funding for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Somalia following a U.N. investigation into widespread theft and misuse of aid meant to avert famine. The EU provided over $7 million in aid to the WFP's operations in Somalia last year, a fraction of the donations of more than $1 billion it received, according to U.N. data. EU member states gave much more money on a bilateral basis. It was not immediately clear whether any would also suspend aid.
The EU has not been informed by its U.N. partners of a financial impact on EU-funded projects. However, we will continue to monitor the situation and abide by our zero-tolerance approach to fraud, corruption or misconduct."
The WFP did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A July 7 report, marked "strictly confidential," was commissioned by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and published on Monday by Devex, a media outlet focused on international development. The report cited internally displaced persons (IDPs) as saying they were coerced into paying up to half of the cash assistance they received to people in positions of power in the face of threats of eviction, arrest, or de-registration from beneficiary lists.
The European Commission contributes 10 million euros ($10.69 million) to Somalia and Ethiopia via the WFP, with the suspension covering part of that, according to one of the senior EU officials. The United States is by far Somalia's biggest humanitarian donor, contributing more than half of the $2.2 billion of funding that went to the humanitarian response there. USAID spokesperson Jessica Jennings said the United States was working to understand the extent of the diversion and was "already taking steps to protect beneficiaries and ensure taxpayer money is used to benefit vulnerable persons in Somalia, as intended."
The Somali Disaster Management Office, which coordinates the government's humanitarian response, said in a statement on Monday that Somali authorities were committed to investigating the U.N. report's findings while adding that current aid delivery systems operate "outside of the government channels".
