US joins UN in suspending food aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray

The US aid agency has suspended food aid to Tigray, Ethiopia, “until further notice” while it investigates humanitarian supply fraud. The U.N. corroborated prior reports.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power stated her group “uncovered that food aid, intended for the people of Tigray suffering under famine-like conditions, was being diverted and sold on the local market.”

The inspector general investigated after the agency discovered food was gone. “Following this review, USAID determined, in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa and our implementing partners, that a temporary pause in food aid was the best course of action,” Power said.

USAID informed Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray authorities of its concerns.

After two years of civil war and government-imposed humanitarian aid restrictions brought parts of Tigray to the brink of famine, nearly all of its 6 million people depend on food aid.

November’s cease-fire resumed relief deliveries.

Who stole food aid and how much was unknown. Last month, AP reported that a warehouse in Sheraro, Tigray, had stolen enough food to feed 100,000 people.

The U.N. World Food Program in Ethiopia informed its partners on April 20 that it has discontinued food delivery to Tigray. AP reported the suspension, which the agency confirmed late Wednesday. It stated food relief activities “will not resume until WFP can ensure that vital aid will reach its intended recipients.”

Tigray’s temporary president, Getachew Reda, created a task force “to prevent and investigate crimes committed in relation to humanitarian aid and enforce the supremacy of the law.”

He called assistance diversion “a double injustice and crime that is being done to children, elderly and disabled (people) who are suffering from starvation and sickness.”

USAID reported $1.8 billion in humanitarian aid to Ethiopia in the 2022 fiscal year.

Drought and civil war plague the country.