A U.S. Agency for International Development –USAID, had on Tuesday, November 14, released a statement revealing that Washington will recommence its food aid programme for individuals across Ethiopia next month. This news is coming after assistance was halted earlier this year, following the implementation of comprehensive reforms.
Ethiopia’s food crisis has worsened in recent years as a consequence of war in the Tigray region and also because of the severe drought the Horn of Africa is experiencing.
Recall that the USAID had in June, announced that it was halting suspending food aid to Ethiopia because its donations were being embezzled, and had only resumed food aid to refugees in the country last month.
According to an official, the decision affected dozens of refugee sites, but none of the sites were in Tigray, where a two-year war between the federal government and troops led by the region’s dominant political party ended in a truce in November 2021.
The agency had remarked that the reforms will “essentially shift” Ethiopia’s food aid system, including by boosting program supervision and oversight and fortifying commodity tracking, among other measures.
The government of Ethiopia has meanwhile, agreed to operational changes in their work with humanitarian partners that will improve the partners’ ability to pinpoint beneficiaries, and to also stay committed to providing unhindered access for the agency and third-party monitors to review sites nationwide.
