By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 20, updated -- As the UN declared a state of famine in two states of Somalia, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia told the Press that in the past two years the United States fell from being the number one donor to Somalia to seventh or eighth place.
There have been calls for the “Responsibility to Protect” concept to be invoked, for the UN Security Council to direct countries to override “political” and even anti-terrorism concerns in order to provide aid to areas controlled by Al-Shabab.
Inner City Press asked Bowden what he and the UN think of invoking R2P, and what they are doing to minimize the degree to which their aid might provide “material benefit” to Al Shabab, the key threshold under US law.
Bowden said that action under R2P is not necessary. While vague on interaction with Al Shabab, he said that there has been no change in policy, that the UN works with “local drought committee” and that the Transitional Federal Government in Mogadishu supports this. We'll see.
Update: Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about Bowden's aid rankings later Wednesday morning, as transcribed by the US Mission to the UN:
Inner City Press: Mark Bowden, the humanitarian coordinator of the UN, just gave a press conference and he said that the U.S., two years ago, was the number one donor to Somalia and has now fallen to seventh or eighth-pretty much tied to anti-terrorism restrictions on where the funds can go. I know you gave the Horn of Africa number but is he correct about this?
Ambassador Rice: I can't tell you if he's correct. I can tell you that the United States remains the largest bilateral donor to the crisis in the Horn and the epicenter of the crisis in the Horn is, of course, Somalia. We have provided support and will continue to provide support to the refugees that have reached Ethiopia and Kenya among others, but our support has gone to Somalia as well and will continue to do so. The challenge has been access for the humanitarian agencies, particularly in the south and the central region, and it's been blocked deliberately as a matter of policy by al-Shabaab. And al-Shabaab is principally responsible for exacerbating the consequences of the drought situation by preventing its own people from being able to access critically needed assistance.
