Since the onset of a “reformist government” under the leadership of the ruling Prosperity Party in April 2018, Ethiopians are enduring a cocktail of deadly humanitarian crises, including wars and other forms of militarized violence that not only turned them against each other, but also opened the doors wide for foreign mercenaries to destroy their lives and livelihoods. Drought that is threatening to return famine in multiple parts of the country is devouring urban households and the peasantry indiscriminately. This has come about in the wake of the global COVID pandemic that already crippled Ethiopia’s economy built over the past three decades.
All of which have robbed millions of hard working Ethiopians the means to survive without aid dependency. Today, more than 20 million Ethiopians are in need of external food aid assistance.
That is why the news of industrial scale food aid theft involving corruption and mismanagement of food aid distribution in crisis-hit Ethiopia caught the word by a shock. The scale of this abhorrent practice, which involved a web of complex logistical and deliberate mismanagement of the food aid system between layers of different actors including government officials, required a drastic response from the so-called humanitarian partners.
To a degree, the decision by these major humanitarian partners, notably the USAID and the WFP, to bring food aid delivery to a screeching halt was understandable insofar it was meant to bring a quick fix to such malpractice. In many cases, weak governance compounded by multiple wars and militarized violence, as well as a crippled economy – Ethiopia’s trademarks as of late – lead to people who have access to food aid delivery logistics to resort to theft, partly out of desperation, but in most part due to lack of monitoring and accountability mechanisms. In other words, a dysfunctional food aid management system.
These factors are the exact opposite factors of why Ethiopia’s food aid management system in the past had been considered solid. This country has faced recurring food crises over many decades, which has given the government and humanitarian organizations extensive experience in managing food aid operations. With each crisis, they have learned and adapted their strategies, building a level of expertise in handling such situations.
Under the EPRDF-led government, Ethiopia had shown a strong commitment to addressing food insecurity issues within the country. It had exercised the tricky balance of keeping its sovereignty while closely working with international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to mitigate food insecurity, distribute food supplies, and ensure assistance reached those in need. It is this collaboration with major international organizations, such as the USAID and WFP, and other humanitarian agencies that helped Ethiopia to establish an effective chain of logistics and food aid management, avoiding duplication of aid and food aid theft while at the same time ensuring resources are efficiently allocated and used for the intended purposes. Surely, there were malpractices, but they were far and between.
Abiy Ahmed regime can't govern the nation!
Furthermore, adhering to early warning systems that help predict and monitor food shortages and enable the government and aid agencies to respond proactively to emerging crises; engaging local communities to ensure that the aid provided aligns with the specific needs and cultural preferences of the affected populations; and staying focused on the importance of long-term solutions to food security issues by investing in agriculture, infrastructure, and sustainable development projects to enhance food production and improve resilience to future shocks have all made Ethiopia one of the leading countries in the word where drought and conflict related shocks are best managed.
The ruling Abiy Ahmed's party was never held to account when it deliberately blocked food aid to millions of Ethiopians who are vulnerable to malnutrition and starvation due to its wars. What should have been seen as a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights principles, as access to food is recognized as a fundamental human right, was allowed to run free in Ethiopia, not only leading to loss of lives, but also corrupting a system of food aid management that was painstakingly built and survived times of wars and famines.
It is now an open secret and a fact admitted by many with inside knowledge that instead of fighting against such deliberate food aid blockades by taking crucial steps to protect the smooth running of Ethiopia’s well established food aid delivery system, and implement a transparent and accountable food aid distribution to the most vulnerable, the west, which constitutes Ethiopia’s largest humanitarian partners, sat by idly and watched the system collapse. Those with knowledge of how we have reached here confided in this publication that such negligence and complacency by the very humanitarian partners operating on the ground has forced the system to succumb to rampant corruption and food aid mismanagement at a scale that was never seen before.
As such, when the news of massive aid theft hit the headlines, including by this publication, the drastic immediate measures taken by the USAID and WFP were to announce the cutting off food aid delivery until further investigations were conducted and the system was fixed.
There is a strong possibility of linkage between the rapidly expanding chronic food shortage with the rising social unrest, newly emerging conflicts, and even mass displacements across several parts of the country. If not addressed as a matter of priority, and urgency, this could have regional and global implications, as neighboring countries may also face an influx of Ethiopian refugees seeking relief from hunger and instability.
That is why the international community must accept the fact that despite the Ethiopian government not being in a position to rescue millions of its citizens from famine induced deaths, hunger and malnutrition, they should make the bitter decision to work with it to immediately restore food aid delivery to Ethiopia.
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