The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Thursday that it was halting food assistance to Ethiopia because funds were being severed from those in need.
As stated by a spokeswoman, USAID and the Ethiopian government had confirmed that a “widespread and planned campaign is diverting food assistance from the people of Ethiopia.”
The campaign’s sponsors were not identified in the statement.
In Ethiopia, where more than 20 million people require food assistance, most of them as a result of drought and a just ended war in the northern Tigray area, the United States is by far the country’s largest humanitarian donor.
USAID estimates the food has been transferred to Ethiopian military troops, as per an internal briefing by a group of foreign donors to Ethiopia viewed by Reuters.
The Humanitarian and Resilience Donor Group (HRDG), which includes USAID, “the scheme appears to be managed by federal and regional government institutions, with military forces around the nation benefiting from humanitarian assistance.”
Requests for comment from a military spokesperson did not immediately receive a response.
In a joint statement, USAID and Ethiopia’s foreign affairs ministry announced that “the two countries are initiating investigations to ensure that those responsible for such diversion are held accountable.”
On the sidelines of a conference in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Demeke Mekonnen, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, about the matter.
Then, as indicated by the State Department, Blinken appreciated Ethiopia’s government’s pledge to collaborate with the US on a thorough inquiry.
The representative for USAID added that once the organization was confident with the reliability of the system, food assistance would continue.
In response to allegations that significant amounts of aid were being diverted there, USAID and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) previously suspended food supplies to the Tigray area of northern Ethiopia last month.
Tens of thousands of people were killed during a two-year conflict in Tigray between the federal government and forces commanded by the region’s leading political party, which resulted in conditions similar to famine for hundreds of thousands of people. The conflict ended in a truce in November.
Around $1.5 billion in humanitarian help, mostly in the form of food aid, was given to Ethiopia by USAID during the 2022 fiscal year.
The Ethiopian government should let help to be delivered using “alternative modalities,” such cash transfers, according to the HRDG briefing document, which was distributed to donors on Wednesday.
Additionally, it pleaded with donors to ask Ethiopia’s government to issue a public statement denouncing the diversion and requesting that relief workers not be mistreated.
Due to the Tigrayan conflict and the worst drought. The Horn of Africa has experienced in decades, Ethiopia’s food problem has gotten worse recently.
The WFP is also investigating “systemic” food diversion throughout Ethiopia, according to an email sent last week by the deputy director to staff members in Ethiopia.
An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by WFP official.
