Just 14% of 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. Aid agencies are also struggling with a lack of funds. A third aid worker said the food aid pause and the slow resumption meant some people in Tigray have not received food aid for over a year. Around 20.1 million people across Ethiopia need humanitarian food due to drought, conflict and a tanking economy. A U.N. panel accused Ethiopia’s government of using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting food aid to Tigray during the conflict, which ended in November 2022 with a peace deal.
