The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Tuesday that it has resumed the distribution of food assistance in parts of the Ethiopian Tigray region after a three-month halt. It stated that it began testing and verifying new procedures on July 31, to provide food assistance in four districts of Tigray to just over 100,000 eligible people.
In a statement, it said: "The testing distributions are taking place at seven food distribution points, where WFP and its partners have completed the digital targeting and registration of beneficiaries." The program confirmed that it will continue to work with its partners to test the latest procedures before broader distribution of aid.
WFP temporarily suspended food assistance to the region in May following reports of theft of donations. The organization then suspended aid to all of Ethiopia in June. The United States took similar action. The Ethiopian government criticized the halt in assistance, stating it was investigating the allegations of theft. WFP and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) indicated they are working to ensure aid reaches targeted beneficiaries before resuming any assistance.
More than 20 million people in Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous country, are in need of food assistance, largely due to the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in decades and the two-year civil war in Tigray. The program had been providing emergency food assistance to about six million of them.
