NGO ends Mozambique flood aid over graft: report

A charity has withdrawn assistance from flood-torn Mozambique’s biggest displaced persons’ camp after its administrators allegedly plotted to steal food meant for thousands of people, a report said Monday.

Camp officials near the southern town of Chokwe put down their own names for aid worth $225,000 (166,000 euros), Gift of the Givers organisation told South Africa’s The Times.

“Things went wrong because of the Mozambican government officials,” Imtiaz Sooleiman, the head of the South African-based non-governmental organisation, said.

“They were taking from the people we were meant to be helping,” he added. “We discovered these bogus and fictitious lists with people not in need of anything.”

Mozambique has called for millions of dollars in foreign aid after the deluge left dead 68 and affected as many as 250,000, according to the United Nations.

Good governance NGO Transparency International last year scored the poor southern African nation 123rd out of 178 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index.