UN's World Food Programme resumes food aid delivery in Ethiopia

The World Food Programme said Tuesday it had partially resumed distributing food aid in Ethiopia, after halting assistance four months ago over the diversion of supplies.

A worker covers a truck full of sacks of grain in a warehouse of the World Food Programme (WFP) in the city of Abala, Ethiopia, on 9 June, 2022. (File photo) © AFP - Eduardo Soteras

The UN agency said the aid was intended only for the country's almost 900,000 refugees living in camps.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and US agency USAID halted food aid to Africa's second most populous country in June after discovering supplies were not reaching those in need, raising fears that millions of Ethiopians would be left starving.

Around 17 percent of the country's 120 million people depend on food aid.

Last week USAID said it had resumed food aid to refugees in around 30 camps.

Refugee camps in Ethiopia

Most refugees in Ethiopia are from Somalia, Eritrea, and South Sudan. Around 35,000 have fled the conflict in neighbouring Sudan in recent months.

"Families living in refugee camps across five regions, including new arrivals who have fled from Sudan, are receiving food parcels for the first time since WFP paused food distributions in June," WFP assistant executive director Valerie Guarnieri, said.

It followed "a full revamp of the safeguards and controls in its refugee operations," the WFP added.

📸 #Ethiopia: Food distribution to refugees in the Kebribeyah refugee camp.

Around 35,000 people who have fled Sudan to Ethiopia in the last six months urgently require food assistance. Ethiopia also hosts 850,000 refugees mostly from Somalia, South Sudan, and Eritrea. pic.twitter.com/dr1UVcmXWJ

— World Food Programme (@WFP) October 10, 2023

"Refugee food security has deteriorated in the past months, leading to increased malnutrition, heightened tensions around the camps and even unsafe journeys back across the border.

"Food is a lifeline for refugees living in unimaginably hard conditions, and it's a relief that we now have measures in place to resume vital support."

The WFP added that it was also making progress rolling out "controls and measures needed to resume food distributions for millions of food insecure Ethiopians".

At the end of July, the WFP launched "test distributions" of food aid in the Tigray region following the brutal two-year war between forces loyal to the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

(with AFP)