“The United States is the largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia and we remain committed to the Ethiopian people. However, USAID recently found that food aid was being diverted to the people of Tigray, who were suffering from famine conditions. was being manufactured and sold in the local market,” USAID said in a statement.
Similarly, he has indicated that “a temporary pause in food aid” is the best decision at the same time that he has indicated that the agency is already conducting an investigation. To do this, several senior officers of the office have been deployed for the purpose of “assessment” on the ground.
“This diversion has dealt a further blow to innocent civilians who have unnecessarily suffered because of the recent conflict in northern Ethiopia, where millions of people are severely food insecure. While food aid has been halted in the Tigray region, other types of aid Will continue life support”, is settled.
On the same Wednesday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted “significant progress” in the implementation of the November 2022 peace agreement between the Ethiopian government and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF). ) and stressed the importance of the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the country in order to achieve further progress.
The conflict in Tigray began in November 2020 following an attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) on the main Ethiopian army base located in Mekelle, following which the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, ordered an offensive against the group. After months of tension at the political and administrative level, including the TPLF’s refusal to recognize the election postponement and the decision to hold regional elections bordering Addis Ababa.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of stoking tensions since coming to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF was the dominant force within the coalition that has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, the ethnically based Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it saw as an attempt to reduce his influence.
