By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi
The war-chest of Somalias al-Qaeda-allied Islamists is likely being boosted with United Nations funds used to buy charcoal from areas the terror group controls, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Al-Shabaab pays for weapons and fighters with the £800,000 a month it earns from charcoal sales and exports, now banned under a British-sponsored UN Security Council resolution adopted at the London Conference on Somalia in February.
The business has become the groups most lucrative source of income, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
But the UN has since April been buying 52 tonnes of charcoal a week for the kitchens of peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu, and one Somalia expert said it was highly unlikely that the deal was not at least indirectly benefiting the terrorists.
Read more from source: The Telegraph Somalia's Islamist war chest being boosted by UN funds - Telegraph
The war-chest of Somalias al-Qaeda-allied Islamists is likely being boosted with United Nations funds used to buy charcoal from areas the terror group controls, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Al-Shabaab pays for weapons and fighters with the £800,000 a month it earns from charcoal sales and exports, now banned under a British-sponsored UN Security Council resolution adopted at the London Conference on Somalia in February.
The business has become the groups most lucrative source of income, according to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea.
But the UN has since April been buying 52 tonnes of charcoal a week for the kitchens of peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu, and one Somalia expert said it was highly unlikely that the deal was not at least indirectly benefiting the terrorists.
Read more from source: The Telegraph Somalia's Islamist war chest being boosted by UN funds - Telegraph
