Abstract
In early 2009, on national Danish television, the then head of The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s programme in Somalia explained that whenever UNICEF wanted to bring a truck with food aid to the many starving children in the poverty-stricken country they would have to pay each time the truck was to pass one of the many roadblocks set up by the Somali militia. Typically the cost of bribing the militia to let one truck pass all the roadblocks would total more than €3,300. The UNICEF head emphasised that this extortion by the militia constituted a very considerable problem, but he also made it clear that the alternative to paying the bribes was that thousands of Somali children would starve to death within a short time. Not only UNICEF has been faced with this dilemma. Other emergency relief organisations, be they international, national or non-governmental organisations (NGOs), regularly have to choose between bribing local militia and custom officers etc. out of their limited funds and thereby being able to help some, or to refuse to bribe which may mean that they will help none.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Humanitarian Action : Global, Regional and Domestic Legal Responses |
| Editors | Andrej Zwitter, Christopher K. Lamont, Hans-Joachim Heintze, Joost Herman |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Place of Publication | Cambridge |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Publication date | 1 Jan 2014 |
| Pages | 253-271 |
| Chapter | 11 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781107053533 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2014 |