Somalia can handle more funds directly: AU

By Abdiaziz Hassan

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia has made progress restoring state institutions and accountability and its administration can now handle more funds directly, the African Union's deputy head of mission to Somalia said.

For nearly two decades, the Horn of Africa nation has had no functional central government and its transitional administration controls only sections of the capital Mogadishu.

Wafula Wamunyinyi, the deputy special representative for the AU Commission for Somalia, said the government received inadequate direct funding, and that there were still some impediments to them getting more aid.

"They were working hard in re-establishing state institutions, coordination and implementation of the plans; they are making progress ... and taking care of the accountability system," he told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"They are now making progress, working some specific budgets for the first time, and that kind of thing shows there is a direction ... Then, donors will release the funds to them eventually."

Wamunyinyi said the mission had received more than half the $213 million donors have pledged to help restore Somalia's security and public services.

International donors agreed last April to provide the money to help Somalia's transitional government and the 5,000 AU troops providing security to the government.

"I think over $120 million ... has been directed to trust funds, and some progress has been made on that," Wamunyinyi said, speaking in his office in the Kenyan capital.