WFP suspends food aid to Ethiopia's Tigray over reported thefts

FILE PHOTO: World Food Programme employee walks between sacks of food at the Um Rakuba refugee camp which houses Ethiopian refugees fleeing the fighting in the Tigray region, on the Sudan-Ethiopia border in Sudan, November 29, 2020. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -The U.N. World Food Programme has paused food distribution in Ethiopia's war-ravaged Tigray region in response to reports that significant amounts of aid were being diverted, the agency said.

The announcement follows a similar one by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which said on Wednesday it had discovered that food intended for people in Tigray, millions of whom are in severe need of aid, was being diverted and sold.