August 11, 2013
Almost half a million pounds of British taxpayer-funded aid and
equipment has fallen into the hands of al-Qaeda, Britain’s Department for
International Development has admitted.
Al-Qaeda’s Somali franchise, al-Shabaab, “confiscated” the equipment
from DfID contractors in multiple incidents over at least three months before
any action was taken, the Telegraph wrote in a report.
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| Somalia’s Al Shabaab fighters |
The admission is contained in the small print of the department’s
latest accounts, which say that £480,000 worth of “humanitarian materials and
supplies” was written off following repeated “confiscations” by al-Shabaab.
The confiscations are one of a series of developments disclosed by
the department, which will increase controversy over the British aid budget, the
only item of government expenditure that is rising sharply in an era of
cuts.
British aid is due to reach about £11billion by 2015, to meet the
Government’s promise that aid spending should be 0.7 per cent of gross national
income. Critics say the 0.7 per cent figure encourages wasteful spending to meet
the target.
Investigations by The Telegraph showed a number of areas of
questionable spending and results that are open to question, including how:
* The proportion of British aid spent on the poorest countries has
dropped from 80 per cent to just over 65 per cent;
