KAMPALA: The United States Agency for International Development said on Thursday it is resuming food deliveries to hundreds of thousands of refugees in Ethiopia, four months after assistance was halted over a widespread scheme to steal supplies. "We continue to work with the Ethiopian government on additional reforms that will help ensure that assistance is provided based on assessed vulnerability and need, consistent with international best practice," the USAID spokesperson said.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 ofTigray in March.At the time, USAID officials told The Associated Press that the diversion scheme could be the largest-ever theft of humanitarian food. Since then, thousands of deaths linked to the food pause have been reported in Tigray.The WFP restarted small-scale distributions in some areas of Tigray on July 31 as it tested "enhanced controls and measures." Last month, the leader of the Tigray region said 480 people had been arrested there over the theft.
