US Suspends Food Aid in Ethiopia’s Tigray

The US aid agency has suspended all food aid to Ethiopia's northern Tigray region "until further notice" while it investigates the theft of humanitarian supplies.

The UN confirmed earlier reports that it was doing the same.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said 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.”

After discovering the food was missing, the agency alerted the Inspector General, who opened an investigation.

“Following this review, USAID determined, in coordination with the US Embassy in Addis Ababa and our implementing partners, that a temporary pause in food aid was the best course of action,” Bauer said in a statement.

She added that USAID had raised its concerns with the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigray authorities.

Almost all of Tigray's 6 million residents depend on food aid after two years of civil war and government restrictions on humanitarian relief have pushed parts of the region to the brink of famine.

The war ended in November with a ceasefire that also saw aid deliveries resume.

It was not clear who was responsible for the theft of food aid and the amount seized.

Last month, the Associated Press reported that the missing supplies included enough food to feed 100,000 people, taken from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro.