After discovering that shipments were being diverted to local markets, USAID and the World Food Programme announced on Wednesday that they were restricting food assistance to Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray area.
“We have made the difficult decision to pause all USAID-supported food assistance in the Tigray region until further notice,” said Samantha Power, administrator of USAID, the main foreign aid organization of the US government.
In a statement, Power said that the organization had just “discovered that food aid, intended for the people of Tigray suffering under famine-like conditions, was being diverted and sold on the local market.”
The WFP added that after learning of issues with food diversion, it has “paused” food supplies in Tigray.
The distribution “will not resume until WFP can ensure that vital aid will reach its intended recipients,” according to a statement.
Neither organization could determine who was stealing the food supplies and selling it.
However, they claimed that they had brought up the matter with regional and federal officials from Tigray, Ethiopia.
According to the WFP, it had instructed regional officials to keep an eye out for illegal activity, denounce it, and uphold contracts for food delivery.
Power reported that officials had promised to assist in locating and prosecuting those responsible for the supplies’ diversion.