‘Humanitarian e-commerce’ thrives in Somalia amid pandemic
ABDI SHEIKH MUSLIMA Abdirahman, a Somali mother of nine, escaped death twice in the past two years while shopping for groceries in Mogadishu, where Islamist insurgents regularly carry out suicide bombings on busy streets and markets. She shudders at the memories: "I wiped my tears with my veil and went home on foot without buying anything." But earlier this year Abdirahman traded her dangerous errands for online shopping, thanks to the World Food Programme's "humanitarian e-commerce" system in Somalia -- part of its global shift from distributing food to handing out cash. Conceived as a way to protect women in…