{"id":302899,"date":"2026-05-01T17:45:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/?p=302899"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:45:40","slug":"democratic-senator-urges-rubio-not-to-end-ethiopia-food-aid-semafor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/?p=302899","title":{"rendered":"Democratic senator urges Rubio not to end Ethiopia food aid\u00a0&#8211; Semafor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">May 1, 2026, 9:12am EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"533\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.semafor.com\/7272723d6e045e5f4ea3b3cdb7eb18e551743a81-5500x3667.jpg?resize=800%2C533&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Ken Cedeno\/Reuters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The top Democrat on the US Senate\u2019s Foreign Relations Committee urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to end food assistance for millions of Ethiopians, warning of a potential \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d amid renewed tensions in the northern Tigray region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">In a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foreign.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/ethiopia_letter.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a>&nbsp;sent to Rubio on Wednesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen warned that US funding cuts and the restructuring of food assistance programs would leave up to 3.1 million people without aid in a region that was rocked by war from 2020 to 2022. Shaheen said that the timing was potentially dire as \u201cthe break in food assistance will coincide with the lean and rainy seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a State Department-funded monitoring program,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fews.net\/global\/food-assistance-outlook-brief\/january-2026\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">projected<\/a>&nbsp;in January that Ethiopia\u2019s food assistance needs would nearly double \u2014 from around 9 million people to 16 million \u2014 as the lean, or pre-harvest, season peaks in July, with emergency conditions expected in several regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"862\" width=\"800\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.semafor.com\/17f284c2ceb873f498f9e85193dd87cc606607c7-1066x1148.jpg?resize=800%2C862&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A chart showing US aid to Ethiopia by sector by year.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">\u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/author\/adrian-elimian\">Adrian Elimian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 1, 2026, 9:12am EDT The top Democrat on the US Senate\u2019s Foreign Relations Committee urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to end food assistance for millions of Ethiopians, warning of a potential \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d amid renewed tensions in the northern Tigray region. In a&nbsp;letter&nbsp;sent to Rubio on Wednesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen warned that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-19"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302900,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302899\/revisions\/302900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopanorama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}