Ethiopia in action: 186 fraud suspects identified

Members of the government of Ethiopia are among 186 charged with obstructing food aid to the troubled northern region (Image by gettyimages.com)

Members of the Ethiopian government and humanitarian agencies are among 186 suspects linked with the diversion of food aid meant for the country’s troubled north, a Tigrayan Commission of Inquiry said Thursday 15th June 2023. In early May USAID, the US government’s humanitarian agency, and the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) announced they were freezing food aid to Ethiopia’s war-scarred Tigray region after finding shipments were diverted to local markets.

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Days later both organisations extended the decision to the whole of Ethiopia, with USAID citing “a widespread and coordinated campaign” to divert donated supplies from the needy as the reason for the suspension. According to Fiseha Kidanu, head of the inquiry set up by the Tigrayan authorities, five entities — the Eritrean government, the Ethiopian government, Tigray regional authorities, coordinators of displaced people camps and aid workers — had participated in the fraud, official media reported.

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993 and fought a two-year border war with its neighbour which poisoned relations until a peace agreement in 2018. Eritrea was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after sending troops into Ethiopia’s Tigray region in support of Ethiopian forces and has been accused of massacring hundreds of civilians. Seven of the 186 suspects are already in custody, Kidanu added in an interview conducted on Wednesday and broadcast on Thursday. Last week Ethiopia’s government said in a joint statement with USAID that it was committed to addressing the “deeply concerning revelations of food aid diversion”.

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Due to conflict and drought, around 20 million people in Ethiopia depend on food aid, 16 per cent of the total population, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said in May. Ethiopia hosts nearly one million refugees, mostly from South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Nearly 30,000 fleeing the recent conflict in Sudan have since mid-April found refuge in the country. Rebel fighters in Tigray began demobilising last month, marking a new stage in the implementation of a peace deal signed by the federal government and regional authorities.^[5]

The two-year war in Africa’s second most populous country killed untold numbers of civilians and forced about two million from their homes before it ended with a surprise truce in November last year. On Thursday, the Ethiopian foreign ministry reiterated that an investigation would be carried out at the national level into the aid scandal. “Nevertheless, this will not prevent certain entities from wanting to use ‘diversion of aid’ as a tool of diplomatic pressure,” foreign ministry spokesman Meles Alem told reporters.

© Agence France-Presse

References

1. ^{^} Sudan: In the third month of the conflict, death toll exceeds 2,000 (www.bing.com)
2. ^{^} Africa embarks on ill-fated peacekeeping mission in Ukraine (www.thesouthafrican.com)
3. ^{^} Budget announcement amid sharp tax hikes in Kenya (www.thesouthafrican.com)
4. ^{^} Moroccan Islamist leader sentenced to one year for sex crimes (www.thesouthafrican.com)
5. ^{^} authorities. (www.macaubusiness.com)