An Ethiopian refugee woman with her child from Tigray region wait to receive aid at the Um Rakuba refugee camp, the same camp that hosted Ethiopian refugees during the famine in the 1980s, some 80 kilometers from the Ethiopian-Sudan border in Sudan, 01 December 2020 (issued 02 December 2020). According to World Food Programme on 02 December, about 12,000 Ethiopian refugees from Tigray are accomodated in the Um Rakuba camp as over 40,000 Ethiopian refugees fleed to Sudan since the start of fights in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia. Ethiopia's military intervention comes after Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces allegedly attacked an army base on 03 November 2020 sparking weeks of unrest. According to reports on 02 December 2020, UN reached an agreement with Ethiopian government to provide aid for the Tigray region of Ethiopia. EPA-EFE/ALA KHEIR More than 20 million people need food aid in Africa's second most-populous nation, largely as a result of the Horn of Africa's worst drought in decades and a two-year conflict in the north that left tens of thousands dead before ending in a truce last year.
Neither WFP nor the U.S. Agency for International Development provided details about the diversions of aid that led to their decisions, but an internal briefing by a group of foreign donors said USAID believes food has been diverted to Ethiopian military units.
Spokespeople for Ethiopia's government, military and foreign affairs ministry have not responded to Reuters' requests for comment.
“Our first concern is the millions of hungry people who depend on our support, and our teams will work tirelessly with all partners to resume our operations as soon as we can," WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said in a statement.
McCain said she welcomed the Ethiopian government's commitment to investigate and hold accountable those responsible, echoing comments made by U.S. officials on Thursday.
WFP said that nutrition assistance to children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, school meals programs, and activities for building the resilience of farmers and pastoralists would continue uninterrupted.
(Reporting by Giulia ParaviciniAdditional reporting by Dawit Endeshaw in Addis Ababa Editing by Aaron Ross and Alexander Winning)