The UN is preventing aid from reaching victims of Somalia's drought, the country's prime minister has said.
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said on Thursday the world body was hoarding supplies and failing to distribute them to those in need.
The comments came as the UN World Food Programme airlifted tonnes of emergency supplies to Mogadishu, the capital, to feed malnourished children in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation.
Amir Mahmoud Abdallah, the chief operating officer of the World Food Programme, said the food in the warehouse "looks like a lot but actually it's not a lot of food".
"The food in the warehouse would actually feed a million people for one day," he told Al Jazeera from Rome, Italy.
"To somebody who is just sort of maybe not as familiar with food distribution, it may look like stockpiling ... There have been some unfortunate media portrayals of this as if it was stockpiling.
"I can assure you there would be no purpose for stockpiling in a situation like this.
"The World Food Programme takes this function very, very seriously. We are basically the life line and food that we have in our supplies we'll get to people wherever we can."
Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said on Thursday the world body was hoarding supplies and failing to distribute them to those in need.
The comments came as the UN World Food Programme airlifted tonnes of emergency supplies to Mogadishu, the capital, to feed malnourished children in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa nation.
Amir Mahmoud Abdallah, the chief operating officer of the World Food Programme, said the food in the warehouse "looks like a lot but actually it's not a lot of food".
"The food in the warehouse would actually feed a million people for one day," he told Al Jazeera from Rome, Italy.
"To somebody who is just sort of maybe not as familiar with food distribution, it may look like stockpiling ... There have been some unfortunate media portrayals of this as if it was stockpiling.
"I can assure you there would be no purpose for stockpiling in a situation like this.
"The World Food Programme takes this function very, very seriously. We are basically the life line and food that we have in our supplies we'll get to people wherever we can."
Challiss McDonough, a WFP spokeswoman, said:"We are distributing food in Mogadishu, we are doing it everyday, we are feeding over 300,000 people in Mogadishu including feeding centers around the city."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/201172810315207360.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/201172810315207360.html
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