USAID said on Thursday it was suspending food aid to Ethiopia because its donations were being diverted from people in need.
According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in a statement said, “After a country-wide review, USAID determined, in coordination with the Government of Ethiopia, that a widespread and coordinated campaign is diverting food assistance. We cannot move forward with the distribution of food assistance until reforms are in place.”
Leaked documents given to donors and shared with The Washington Post indicate that federal and regional government elements coordinated the scheme.
“The scheme appears to be orchestrated by federal and regional government entities, with military units across the country benefiting from humanitarian assistance,” said the document from the Humanitarian and Resilience Donor Group (HRDG), which includes USAID.
It remains unclear exactly what proportion of the food was stolen, but the donors’ report said the investigative team had visited 63 flour mills in seven of Ethiopia’s nine regions and found “significant diversion” across all seven regions.
Food from the United States, Ukraine, Japan, and France donated to the United Nations World Food Program has been stolen, the report said, reports Voice of America News.
The suspension of aid comes as Africa’s most populous nation struggles to feed around 20 million citizens – close to a sixth of its population following a two-year-long civil war and a prolonged drought.
The war in Tigray between the federal government and forces led by the region’s dominant political party ended in a truce in November after killing tens of thousands of people and creating famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands, reports Reuters.
Stopping the aid will have far-reaching effects – worsening the turmoil in the volatile Horn of Africa region, already hammered by a civil war in Sudan that has displaced more than 1.3 million people in six weeks and after constant fighting pushed drought-stricken Somalia to the edge of famine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the issue on Thursday with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen on the margins of a conference in Saudi Arabia.
The State Department said afterward that Blinken welcomed a commitment by Ethiopia’s government to work with the United States to conduct a full investigation.
n the 2022 fiscal year, USAID disbursed nearly $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, most of it food aid. A USAID spokesperson said the agency intended to resume food assistance as soon as it was confident in the integrity of the system.
