The United States and the World Food Programme (WFP) announced Wednesday (May 3rd) to suspend "until further notice" their food aid to the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, ravaged by years of conflict, denouncing the diversion of aid.

"We have made the difficult decision to pause all food assistance provided by USAID to the Tigray region until further notice," USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in a statement. This is because part of this aid has been "diverted and sold on the local market", she adds.

For its part, the Rome-based World Food Programme said it had decided, according to a statement, to "pause food distribution in Tigray, which will not resume until WFP can be able to ensure that this vital aid reaches these intended recipients".

The U.S. government has raised the case with Ethiopian authorities as well as local authorities in Tigray who "have expressed their willingness to work with us to identify those responsible and hold them accountable," the USAID statement said.

However, the organization specifies that this does not concern nutritional supplements, the distribution of drinking water and support for agricultural activities in the region.

"Acute food insecurity"

The amount of food aid involved was not specified, but the United States is the largest humanitarian contributor to Ethiopia.

"This hijacking once again hits an innocent civilian population," the statement continued, noting that "millions of people live in acute food insecurity."

The pause comes six months after the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a "Cessation of Hostilities Agreement" on November 2, ending two years of brutal and deadly war. On Tuesday, the United States welcomed in a statement the "significant progress" made in the implementation of this agreement even if the challenges remain numerous.

During the conflict, Tigray and its six million people were long deprived of assistance. Since then, "84% of the region is experiencing a food crisis", according to WFP.cNorthern Ethiopia "has become more accessible", but aid does not reach "the required scale", stressed the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA) in early April.

With AFP

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