The Obama administration sought to assure aid groups on Tuesday that they could deliver desperately needed food to famine-stricken parts of Somalia without fear of prosecution, even if some assistance is diverted to extremists linked to Al Qaeda.
Aid groups had feared that they could be penalized under laws prohibiting material assistance to the Shabab, an Islamist militant group, which has been criticized by humanitarian organizations as contributing to the food crisis.
Administration officials said Tuesday that new guidelines would allow charities to provide famine aid as long as they pledge their best efforts to combat attempts by the Shabab to hoard aid or collect taxes on supplies.
“We’re trying to ease the process for these organizations to get the proper licenses,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said. Given the widespread violence and corruption in Somalia, he said the United States would exempt aid groups from some legal constraints that would hinder them from reaching starving Somalis.
Drought has left 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia needing help, though official famine zones are only in Somali areas controlled by the Shabab. No American law prevents aid to Somalia, but paying bribes, tolls and other typical costs of doing business in the country could have been punishable, after the State Department declared the Shabab a terrorist organization in 2008.
Aid groups had feared that they could be penalized under laws prohibiting material assistance to the Shabab, an Islamist militant group, which has been criticized by humanitarian organizations as contributing to the food crisis.
Administration officials said Tuesday that new guidelines would allow charities to provide famine aid as long as they pledge their best efforts to combat attempts by the Shabab to hoard aid or collect taxes on supplies.
“We’re trying to ease the process for these organizations to get the proper licenses,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said. Given the widespread violence and corruption in Somalia, he said the United States would exempt aid groups from some legal constraints that would hinder them from reaching starving Somalis.
Drought has left 12 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia needing help, though official famine zones are only in Somali areas controlled by the Shabab. No American law prevents aid to Somalia, but paying bribes, tolls and other typical costs of doing business in the country could have been punishable, after the State Department declared the Shabab a terrorist organization in 2008.
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