UN says US aid restrictions on Somalia are hurting millions of hungry Somalis

U.S. restrictions designed to stop terrorists in Somalia from diverting aid are hurting humanitarian operations in the lawless Horn of Africa country, U.N. officials said Wednesday. U.N. agencies have not seen any evidence from the American government that food aid is being diverted to Islamists fighting the U.N.-backed Somali government, said the top U.N. humanitarian official for Somalia, Mark Bowden. "What we are seeing is a politicization of humanitarian issues," Bowden told journalists in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. "The options for a lot of Somalis look pretty bleak." The U.S. reduced its funding to Somalia last year after its Office of Foreign Assets Control expressed fear that the extended supply line and insurgent-heavy areas where aid agencies were operating meant aid could be diverted to a group with links to al-Qaida. The reduction contributed to a shortfall in funding that meant only two-thirds of the $900 million needed in 2009 was raised.