effect aid workers call ‘Traditional distribution’. 225 On the other hand, critics of this response argue that these defenders of aid overlook the “nonmonetary benefits of humanitarian aid as a resource of war” as it can give factions the appearance of legitimacy which strengthens its cause and can lead to a conflict being prolonged due to the public favouring the faction that is feeding them cheap food. 226 Defenders of aid would retort by saying the amount of aid stolen is only a small fraction of the overall amount that reaches the population. 227 A rather shocking figure from a report from Thomas Weiss stressed that “Estimates claim that 40 to 80 percent of the nearly sixty thousand metrics tons of emergency food rations per month that arrived in Somalia in 1992 never reached the victims of the civil war and famine”. 228 Critics of the previous point would say that all aid matters, as that aid stolen could have been put to better use in another emergency. Humanitarian assistance can also inadvertently present an ethical message to the local recipients, when aid workers use armed guards to protect themselves and the aid packages it seems to present the notion that there is a need for arms to attain admittance to supplies. 229 This ultimately promotes the further use of weapons in society which only adds fuel to the fires of conflict. On the other hand, there is 225 Jeffrey Gettleman, 'Allegations of food aid theft Resurface in Somalia', Africa , 11 September 2014. 226 Sarah Kenyon Lischer, 79–109. 227 Ibid. 228 Thomas G Weiss and Cindy Collins, Humanitarian challenges and intervention: World politics and the dilemmas of help (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 229 Mary B. Anderson, Do no harm: How aid can support peace - or war (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999).
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