How the U.S. helped cause the famine in Somalia

A Somali mother grieves the death of her three-year-old son (from Time.com, by John Moore of Getty Images)

This is outrageous, stunning, and heartbreaking. And yet, not surprising.

Theft of aid is a routine occurrence, but when al-Shabab was designated as a terrorist group, it meant that U.S. officials and foreign aid workers whose actions benefited al-Shabab, even unwittingly, would be penalized. By late 2009 the U.S. was withholding about $50 million in food aid from al-Shabab’s territory in southern Somalia, saying it had no legal alternative. By early 2010 the U.S. was in a standoff with aid workers, requiring them to refuse to pay the tolls al-Shabab demanded if they wanted U.S. funding…(snip)

In effect, southern Somalia was largely without aid and lacked a reliable distribution network through which to move emergency supplies in the event of a disaster. Warning of a crisis, Mark Bowden, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, accused the U.S. of fighting its war with aid. “We’re no longer involved in a discussion about the practicalities of delivering humanitarian assistance with proper safeguards,” he told reporters in February 2010. It had become “an issue of where assistance can be provided on political grounds.”

It is a crime under U.S. law to financially support organizations that have been designated as terrorist groups. Thus, aid organizations that operate in territory controlled by al-Shabab in Somalia have been unable to give aid to the local people because they have to pay fees to the organization. To do so would make the aid groups terrorist-supporters.

This is like school “zero tolerance” policies on a global level and with deadlier consequences. We’ve all heard the stories of elementary-age students who were suspended, or worse, for bringing scissors to school.  The policies of their schools are so rigid that there’s no room for reasonable people to give leeway to those who violate the policy. Nor are the policies written in a way that allows that room for leeway.

Our law on supporting terrorist organizations has no place for aid organizations that operate in territories like southern Somalia.  It is a result of the “either-or” mentality that so often creeps into our lawmaking. It’s that mentality that leads to “zero tolerance” policies in our schools, sick drug addicts clogging up our state prisons, the zealous pursuit of dishwashers and janitors who don’t have immigration status, and the acceleration of a famine.

Obviously, there are many factors that have led to the famine in Somalia and elsewhere in the horn of Africa. Severe drought and- yes- climate change. Constant war. Al-Shabab’s control and unwillingness to let aid in. To suggest that the U.S. is the reason for the famine is also a result of either-or thinking.

But the inflexibility of our laws didn’t help and probably made things worse. And for that, I am ashamed.

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Tags: Natural disasters, peace, Poverty, social justice, Somalia, terrorism