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UN suspends food aid to Ethiopia over ‘diversion’ of supplies

THE United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that it is temporarily suspending food aid to Ethiopia because its supplies are being diverted.

The United States Agency for International Development said on Thursday it was doing the same.

WFP director Cindy McCain said: “Food diversion is absolutely unacceptable, and we welcome the government of Ethiopia’s commitment to investigate and hold accountable those responsible.”

Some 20 million Ethiopians rely on food aid because of severe drought and conflict out of the country’s population of roughly 120 million. 

Much of the aid comes from USAid and the WFP.

The US is the biggest single donor to Ethiopia, providing $1.8 billion (£1.43bn) in humanitarian assistance in the 2022 fiscal year. 

The suspensions brought worries that malnutrition could rise in Africa’s second most populous country.

USAid, WFP and the Ethiopian government have not said who they believe to be responsible for the food diversion, which the US has described as “widespread and co-ordinated.”

However, an internal memo prepared by a group of foreign donor representatives this week pointed at government involvement.

“The scheme appears to be orchestrated by federal and regional government of Ethiopia entities, with military units across the country benefiting from humanitarian assistance,” said the document from the Humanitarian & Resilience Donor Group, which includes bilateral and multilateral partners.

In a joint statement with USAid on Thursday, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry spoke of “deeply concerning revelations” and said it was investigating, with the US, to bring the perpetrators to account.

The nationwide food aid suspensions follow USAid and WFP saying last month that they had suspended food deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which is recovering from a two-year conflict, while they investigated reports of food aid theft there.

Some 5.4 million of the region’s 6 million people rely on humanitarian help.

Earlier this year, USAid administrator Samantha Power told the US Senate’s foreign relations committee that aid theft in Tigray appeared to involve collusion between parties on both sides of the conflict, which ended in November.

In the statement, WFP said it was continuing other programmes in Ethiopia for children, mothers and drought-hit pastoralists.

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