Much of the aid to Africa was used to finance grandiose projects and to underwrite misguided, repressive policies. The rest was embezzled by elite gangsters. Mauritania, a poor arid West African country, receives aid from wealthy western countries. About 70 percent of it goes back as interest payments and the rest is embezzled. “The chief opposition party, Union des Forces Democratiques, claims that since 1985, the government of President Maaouya Ould Sid’ Ahmed Taya has siphoned away $1.8 billion of aid money for itself and its supporters.










