Al Shabaab rebels have ended an agreement with the agency, saying it handed out food rations unfit for consumption
p> LONDON (AlertNet) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has rejected accusations it distributed out-of-date food aid to famine-hit Somalis in south and central areas controlled by al Shabaab rebels.On Monday, the militant group's office that supervises foreign aid operations said it had terminated the ICRC's contract after "repeated distribution of expired food" to weak women and children recovering from drought, adding that it could heighten the risk of disease outbreaks.
In a statement released on Thursday, the ICRC said 6 percent of food intended for distribution – nearly 1,000 tonnes of beans – was found to have deteriorated due to heat, moisture and exposure to heavy rain.
"Those beans were either withdrawn by the ICRC or destroyed by the al Shabaab authorities," said Daniel Duvillard, the ICRC's head of operations for East Africa. "No food suspected to be unfit for human consumption was distributed to aid recipients in Somalia."
Al Shabaab said on Monday that an inspection of ICRC warehouses and food depots on its territory showed that up to 70 percent of the food stored for distribution by the aid organisation was not fit to be eaten.
The ICRC suspended food-aid deliveries in central and southern Somalia in mid-January after it said al Shabaab blocked a food consignment intended for 240,000 people in the Middle Shabelle and Galgaduud regions – which the insurgents deny.
Under an agreement with the rebels, the ICRC had provided more than 1.2 million people in central and southern Somalia with one-month food rations between June and December 2011, handing out over 17,000 tonnes of rice, beans and oil in more than 1,600 different places.
"The food distributions helped address severe malnutrition among the population," Duvillard said.
A Nairobi-based ICRC spokeswoman told AlertNet the ICRC hopes to restart food aid distributions in al Shabaab areas "at some point". In the meantime, it would continue its other activities in central and south Somalia, she said.
These include supporting the Somali Red Crescent to run health clinics and feeding centres for children, as well as water and livelihood activities, such as helping farmers with irrigation and providing fishing equipment.
"The ICRC remains fully committed to helping Somalis overcome recurrent humanitarian crises, improve their livelihoods and enhance their access to health care, as it has done for the past 30 years," the organisation said in Thursday's statement.
Last November, al Shabaab rebels announced a ban on 16 relief agencies in areas they control, including the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Norwegian and Danish Refugee Councils. On that occasion, the ICRC and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) escaped the ban.
The militants also looted aid agency offices, according to the United Nations.
In late January, Duvillard told AlertNet Somalia is approaching the end of the famine that was declared last July and which has killed tens of thousands of people in the conflict-torn Horn of Africa nation. But he said the needs remain "huge”, and it will take at least two years for the country to recover.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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