WFP forced to halt aid for 650,000 women, children in Ethiopia
The UN agency warned that they were among 3.6 million people in Ethiopia who will no longer have access to food aid in the coming weeks without urgent new funding.
Residents displaced by multiple earthquakes gather to fill their water jars at a water tank in a recently established displacement camp in Awash Arba, on January 11, 2025. Picture: Amanuel Sileshi / AFP
ADDIS ABABA -The World Food Programme said Tuesday that it was suspending aid for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia due to a lack of funding.
The UN agency warned that they were among 3.6 million people in Ethiopia who will no longer have access to food aid in the coming weeks without urgent new funding.
"WFP is being forced to halt treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children in May due to insufficient funding," it said in a statement.
"WFP had planned to reach 2 million mothers and children with life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025," it added.
The WFP, like other aid agencies, has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.
More than 10 million people are facing hunger in the east African country of around 130 million, the UN agency said.
Ethiopia is still recovering from a brutal civil war between federal forces and rebels in the northern region of Tigray between November 2020 and November 2022 that killed at least 600,000 people.