NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States Agency for International Development said Thursday it has suspended all food aid to Ethiopia, Africa’s second most-populous country, after an internal investigation found aid intended for millions of hungry people there was being diverted on a “widespread” scale. Power at the time called her agency’s delay in detecting the “widespread and coordinated” theft of aid there “a systemic failure” by her agency. The U.S. is the biggest single donor to Ethiopia, providing $1.8 billion in humanitarian assistance, including food aid, in the 2022 fiscal year. The USAID announcement comes after both USAID and the United Nations World Food Program last month said they had suspended aid to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region while they investigated allegations of food aid theft, which were first reported by the AP in April. With food aid suspended in the region, doctors in Tigray have reported an alarming rise in hunger.

Source: Ethiopian News June 08, 2023 17:14 UTC