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Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is in the midst of a food crisis. Only a few of the target group are receiving food aid, even though it is more than one month after aid agencies resumed deliveries of grain. There was a lengthy pause of aid because of theft and alleged diversion of aid by vested interests.
Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is in the midst of a food crisis. Only a few of the target group are receiving food aid, even though it is more than one month after aid agencies resumed deliveries of grain. There was a lengthy pause of aid because of theft and alleged diversion of aid by vested interests.
Just 14% of the 3.2 million people targeted for food aid by humanitarian agencies in the region this month had received it by Jan. 21, according to the memo by the Tigray Food Cluster, a group of aid agencies co-chaired by the U.N.’s World Food Program and Ethiopian officials.
The memo urges humanitarian groups to immediately scale up their operations, warning that failure to take swift action now would result in severe food insecurity and malnutrition during the lean season. This will have a possible loss of the most vulnerable children and women in the region, the UN agencies apprehend.
The U.N. and the U.S. paused food aid to Tigray in mid-March last year after discovering a large-scale scheme to steal humanitarian grain. The suspension was rolled out to the rest of Ethiopia in June. U.S. officials believe the theft may be the biggest diversion of grain ever. Humanitarian donors have blamed Ethiopian government officials and the country’s military for the fraud. The U.N. and the U.S. lifted the pause in December after introducing reforms to curb theft, but Tigray authorities say food is not reaching those who need it.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/un-backed-probe-on-human-rights-violations-in-tigray-set-to-expire/
https://trendsnafrica.com/us-and-wfp-pause-food-aid-to-tigray-region-due-to-mismanagement/
Around 20.1 million people across Ethiopia need humanitarian food due to drought, conflict, and a tanking economy. The aid pause pushed up hunger levels even further. Tigray, home to 5.5 million people, was the center of a devastating two-year civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and spilled into the neighboring regions.
