UN Agency Suspends Food Aid to Tigray, Ethiopia, Due to Theft

In the midst of an internal inquiry into the theft of food intended for the destitute, the United Nations food relief organization has delayed aid delivery to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray area, according to four humanitarian workers.

Delivering food from the United Nations and other partners to Tigray, the epicenter of a terrible two-year civil war that came to an end with a cease-fire in November, is the responsibility of the World Food Program.

Of the region’s 6 million residents, more than 5 million depend on aid.

According to one of the four aid workers who spoke to AP on April 20, WFP alerted its humanitarian partners that it was temporarily halting food delivery to Tigray due to reports of food embezzlement. This information was corroborated by three other relief workers. Since none of them had the right to discuss this with a journalist, they all insisted on remaining anonymous.

In Ethiopia, where 20 million people require humanitarian assistance because of drought and violence, the WFP is looking into cases of food misappropriation and diversion, according to an AP report from last month.

In a letter dated April 5, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) for Ethiopia urged aid organizations to report “any information or cases of food misuse, misappropriation, or diversion that you are aware of or that are brought to your attention by your staff, beneficiaries, or local authorities.”

Two humanitarian workers at the time informed the AP that the supplies that had been stolen included enough food to serve 100,000 people. The food was found missing from a warehouse in the Sheraro, Tigray city. It was unclear who was in charge of the theft.

During a visit by the WFP to Mekele, the region’s capital, Getachew Reda, the new interim president of Tigray, claimed to have discussed “the growing challenge of diversion and sale of food aid meant for the needy” with senior WFP officials last month.

Requests for comment from a WFP representative in Ethiopia were not immediately answered.