Assistance had been paused since March after officials discovered it was being diverted from refugees.
NOLAN STOUT / October 5, 2023
(CN) — The United States Agency for International Development announced Thursday that it is resuming critical food deliveries to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia.
The U.S. and the United Nations suspended food aid to the country in March after officials discovered a scheme to steal donated wheat intended for refugees in the war-torn Tigray region. At the time, media outlets reported humanitarian donors blamed Ethiopia’s federal government for diverting the aid.
The U.S. is Ethiopia’s biggest foreign aid donor, providing more than $2 billion in fiscal 2022, of which about $59.1 million was specifically earmarked for food assistance. Officials did not provide a dollar amount for the paused aid or announce how much would now be available.
“The resumption of food assistance to refugees will save lives and alleviate suffering for some of the most vulnerable,” USAID spokesperson Jessica Jennings said in a statement.
Officials decided to resume aid after Ethiopia’s government agreed to remove itself from the storage and distribution of supplies, a process that will now be handled by international partners. The agency also said it has implemented measures including biometric tests and GPS tracking across its operations worldwide to help address risks of diversion.
“U.S. humanitarian assistance is a vital lifeline for millions of people in need around the world facing drought, food insecurity, conflict and violence,” Jennings said. “We place the highest priority on ensuring we and our partners use funds wisely, effectively and for their intended purpose.”
The country in the Horn of Africa has received refugees from several regional conflict zones, including Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan and Eritrea. About 76,000 people fleeing the war in Sudan entered Ethiopia between the outbreak of conflict on April 15 and August. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is facing an ongoing drought and a civil conflict that had been simmering since 2018 but has escalated since April.
While the aid will benefit roughly 1 million refugees in Tigray, it will not resume for the 20.1 million Ethiopians, about one-sixth of the population of 120 million, who rely on it amid an ongoing drought and simmering internal civil conflict. Hunger exacerbated by the pause in aid had killed at least 700 people by June.
The United Nations World Food Program restarted small-scale distributions in some areas in late July to test enhanced control measures.
USAID said the other aid programs will remain on hold “until we have assurance it will reach its intended beneficiaries.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the end of September to emphasize the need for “improved humanitarian oversight to allow for the resumption of food assistance.”