The UN World Food Program (WFP) and the United States Emergency Relief Agency (USAID) have suspended food aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray region. That have it WFP and USAID announced shortly after each other on Wednesday. The food is sold on the local market, the organizations see.
There is something wrong with the systems that ensure that food aid arrives at the right destination, according to a statement from the WFP. The organization is figuring out exactly what that is. The UN agency instructs the parties with which it cooperates “to monitor and report all illegal activities, and to enforce agreed controls”. The WFP will not proceed with the distribution until it is certain that the issues have been resolved.
Samantha Power, head of USAID, speaks in a statement of “another blow to innocent civilians suffering needlessly.” A conflict between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigre People’s Liberation Front has plunged the region into a food crisis. After two years of war, the warring parties concluded a peace agreement in November, but the hunger remained.
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