Trucks loaded with WFP relief supplies in Ethiopia
After indications that aid supplies had been diverted, the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the US development agency USAID interrupted their food deliveries to the Ethiopian crisis region of Tigray.
After indications that aid supplies had been diverted, the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the US development agency USAID interrupted their food deliveries to the Ethiopian crisis region of Tigray, according to their own statements. WFP will not resume food distribution in Tigray until it can ensure “essential aid reaches the intended recipients,” the UN agency said on Wednesday. USAID Director Samantha Power said her agency recently revealed that food intended for the people of Tigray had been “diverted and sold in the local market.”
Neither WFP nor USAID provided information on who might be responsible for the misuse of the relief supplies. Both organizations said they had raised the issue with the Ethiopian central government and regional authorities in Tigray. According to WFP, officials in Tigray have been reminded of their obligations to monitor illegal activities and secure food supplies.
USAID, meanwhile, continues to deliver nutritional supplements, drinking water and agricultural supplies to Tigray, according to Power. In the region, where a peace agreement has been in force since November, millions of people are suffering from food shortages after two years of fighting between the Ethiopian central government and the regional rebel organization TPLF. According to the WFP, 84 percent of the region is affected by a food crisis.
The situation in Tigray is also one of the planned topics of the three-day trip to East Africa that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will start on Thursday. Scholz is expected in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in the afternoon, where he wants to meet Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Among other things, it should be about the peace process after the armed conflict in Tigray.
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