Millions still needing food as UN resumes aid following plot to steal grain

Displaced Tigrayans line up to receive food donated by local residents at a reception centre in Mekele, Ethiopia (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

Only a small fraction of needy people in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region are receiving food aid more than one month after aid agencies resumed deliveries of grain following a lengthy pause over theft, it has been revealed.

Just 14% of 3.2 million people targeted for food aid by humanitarian agencies in the region this month had received it by January 21, according to the memo by the Tigray Food Cluster, a group of aid agencies co-chaired by the UN’s World Food Program and Ethiopian officials.