Food aid will be restored to roughly 1 million refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and elsewhere. However, food assistance has not resumed for the 20.1 million Ethiopians who rely on it as the country grapples with internal conflict and drought. USAID and the United Nations World Food Program in June halted all food aid to Ethiopia after an internal investigation found donated food intended for millions of hungry people there was being diverted on a “widespread” scale. Both agencies had already paused food assistance to the war-torn province of Tigray in March. At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food.
