U.S. aid rules eased in Somalia

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is intensifying efforts to deliver food to famine-stricken Somalia, easing restrictions on humanitarian aid groups so they won’t be penalized if they inadvertently help al-Qaida-linked militants battling for power in the country.

With the worst famine in decades stirring worldwide alarm, the new rules are intended to provide “more flexibility and to allow a wider range of aid to a larger number of areas in need,” a senior administration official said Tuesday.

A widening famine and drought threatens about 3 million people in the Horn of Africa, many in remote regions of southern Somalia. The United Nations estimates it will need $300 million worth of food, medicine and other emergency supplies over the next three months to meet the crisis.

Much of southern Somalia is controlled by Al Shabab, an Islamist extremist group that is officially listed by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization. Under the law, anyone providing aid to Shabab may be subject to prosecution.

Humanitarian aid groups also have worried about a 2008 U.N. Security Council Resolution that imposed a travel ban and economic sanctions on some Somali leaders and their supporters.

The impoverished nation has been without a central government for two decades.