US joins UN in suspending food aid to Tigray

The United States aid agency says it has suspended all food assistance to the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray “until further notice” while it investigates the theft of humanitarian supplies. The U.N. confirmed earlier reports that it was doing the same.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said that her group has “uncovered that food aid, intended for the people of Tigray suffering under famine-like conditions, was being diverted and sold on the local market.”After discovering food was missing, the agency alerted its inspector general, who launched an investigation.

The U.N.‘s World Food Program in Ethiopia told its partners on April 20 that it had suspended deliveries of food to Tigray.Nearly all of Tigray’s 6 million people rely on food aid. The U.S. is the biggest single humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, providing 1.8 billion USD in humanitarian assistance to the country in the 2022 fiscal year.