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Billions Vanished, and Somalia Is Reportedly Teetering on Famine

Posted By Talk Red On In News, Opinion | No Comments

Somalia is reportedly edging toward famine while the United States, after years of immense spending, has cut USAID and other programs. The crisis is grim, but the record surrounding [1] American aid and alleged diversion makes another blank check a remarkably hard sell.

Fraud involving Minnesota’s Somali community has already cost taxpayers dearly. At least $9 billion was stolen through state welfare programs, including Medicaid, housing assistance, and autism programs, while millions more disappeared through the “Feeding Our Future” scandal.

Almost $400 million was also funneled to Al-Shabaab, the Somali based Islamic terrorist organization. CBS News reported that millions were spent on luxury cars and lakefront homes, while additional money was sent to banks in China and Kenya.

Now Somalia is said to be approaching famine, with American assistance no longer arriving as it once did. One report said this marks the first time since the 1980s that the United States has faced a disaster of this kind without acting and apparently has no plans to act.

The humanitarian conditions described in Somalia are severe. Consecutive droughts beginning last year have killed more than 1 million livestock, devastating a population in which many people rely on herding goats, sheep, and camels.

Somalia’s government offers little hope of relief, according to the report. It is described as corrupt and dedicates most of its limited budget to fighting Al-Shabaab, which is identified as al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate.

Al-Shabaab controls a third of Somalia, including territory beside rivers. The terrorist organization has permitted major irrigation projects in those areas to deteriorate, further complicating efforts to preserve crops and sustain communities.

International assistance throughout Somalia is now scarce or entirely unavailable. Half a million children reportedly suffer from severe acute malnutrition, the final stage of hunger before death, when organ failure begins and irreversible brain damage typically occurs.

The country could soon face another disaster on top of drought and hunger. Somalia’s emergency management agency predicts that the Super El Niño could bring the worst flash flooding the country has experienced this century.

Those floods could drown crops and livestock while making it more difficult for remaining humanitarian workers to reach tens of thousands of people in displacement camps. According to the report, some of those residents would likely begin starving to death.

Yet the calls for renewed American involvement arrived with inconvenient context. A Community Note pointed out that the United States sent Somalia more than $7 billion in aid from 2015 through 2025, hardly evidence that Washington simply ignored the country.

The cuts followed allegations of waste, theft, and diversion, including the destruction of an American funded warehouse. In January, the United States suspended assistance to Somalia’s government after alleging that Somali officials seized food aid intended for the country’s citizens.

According to the Associated Press, Somali officials destroyed the World Food Program warehouse and took 76 metric tons of food assistance. The warehouse itself had been funded by the United States, adding yet another ugly detail to the record surrounding aid distribution.

Critics have also questioned what Washington could realistically do that might succeed without deploying American military forces or inviting accusations of imperialism and racism. The events of October 3rd and 4th, 1993, were cited as another reason Americans have not forgotten the risks of intervention.

A social media post claimed Somalia received $28B in aid during the past 20 years. For comparison, another post said Japan received an inflation adjusted $24 billion after being struck by two nuclear bombs, having its capital firebombed, and losing 25% of its armed forces.

Somalia’s suffering may be real, but so is the staggering history of American money poured into a system plagued by corruption, terrorist control, and alleged theft. After billions in aid and repeated reports of diversion, demanding still more from American taxpayers is not a serious answer.