Following the conclusion of an agreement to supervise the distribution of aid, the US Development Agency (USAID) stated on Tuesday that food aid deliveries from the US to Ethiopia will resume throughout the nation.
Amidst allegations of money being misappropriated for military use, USAID declared that it will resume delivery of aid starting next month. The organisation will examine Ethiopia’s compliance with its pledges for the first year.
“These far-reaching and significant reforms will profoundly change the food aid system in Ethiopia and ensure that aid reaches those suffering from acute food insecurity,” USAID spokeswoman Jessica Jennings said in a statement.
The US agency had already announced in early October a limited resumption of food aid deliveries to meet the needs of thousands of refugees in Africa’s second most populous country. The resumption was to affect around thirty camps in Ethiopia, which is home to almost a million refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) made a similar announcement a few days later.
Ethiopia is plagued by serious internal violence, a deteriorating economic situation and chronic natural disasters.
Around 17% of Ethiopia’s 120 million inhabitants depend on international food aid. But last June, the UN and the United States suspended the distribution of food aid throughout the country because of “widespread and coordinated” misappropriation.
In May, they had already done the same for the northern region of Tigray, ravaged by two years of war, before extending the suspension to the whole country. At the beginning of October, the WFP stated that it had resumed aid deliveries “after a total reorganisation of the safeguards and controls” on refugee operations.
