On a sweltering March afternoon last year, an American aid worker sat on a stool in Sheraro, a war-torn town in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, sipping traditional roasted coffee when a red truck loaded with sacks of grain appeared. The 50-kilo bags were stamped with the USAID logo, representing the U.S. Agency for International Development, the world’s largest donor of food assistance. This grain was intended to help some of the millions in Tigray reliant on food donations for survival.

However, instead of heading to a camp filled with starving individuals, the red truck veered in the wrong direction. The USAID worker and several colleagues decided to follow it.

Officials from USAID soon discovered that thousands of tons of donated grain were being diverted to commercial mills and markets across Ethiopia. This shocking revelation led USAID to announce the preliminary outlines of the alleged scheme in May 2023 and initiate an investigation. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP), a major food aid distributor and key USAID partner, also pledged to investigate.

As a result, both organizations suspended food aid distribution across Ethiopia for five months, disrupting supplies to millions of hungry people. They have yet to release any findings or identify suspects.

Humanitarian workers and U.S. officials now believe this incident represents one of the largest documented thefts and diversions of food aid. While the total loss may never be fully known, a Tigrayan official has claimed that over 7,000 tons of wheat were stolen—enough to feed more than 450,000 people for a month.

Cindy McCain, head of the WFP, publicly stated that the UN agency maintained a “zero tolerance for theft or diversion.” However, a Reuters investigation revealed that the WFP had been aware of food aid thefts in Ethiopia for several years yet failed to act. Internal USAID documents indicated that aid was being funneled to both the Ethiopian and Tigrayan armies, as well as to the black market.

The WFP had been warned by its own staff and other aid organizations as early as 2021 about food diversion occurring nationwide, according to four UN workers and diplomats. They claimed the WFP chose to ignore these warnings amid the civil war ravaging the country, fearing that the Ethiopian government might retaliate by limiting aid deliveries to Tigray.

In response to inquiries, the WFP stated it lacked sufficient details to comment on these incidents. An official with Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management Commission denied that the government would have restricted aid flow into Tigray.

Some U.S. officials privately question the trustworthiness of the WFP. An internal WFP investigative report cited a May 2023 cable from Washington’s top diplomat in Ethiopia, expressing concern that the “scale and depth of diversion” in areas managed by the WFP raised doubts about the organization’s reliability as a partner in food distribution.

USAID employees discovered that food donations were being systematically diverted across the country, with the Ethiopian military regularly redirecting donor-funded wheat to private mills for conversion into flour for soldiers. “Predatory racketeers” were reportedly manipulating the vulnerable into selling their rations.

The WFP's internal report acknowledged large-scale aid diversion after the food had been delivered to local partners for distribution. However, it absolved itself of responsibility, stating that the diversion was primarily driven by beneficiaries in Ethiopia who sold some of their food rations.

This situation exemplifies how a global system designed to combat hunger and prevent famine—comprising UN agencies, non-governmental humanitarian groups, and donor countries—can be undermined by corruption, lax administrative controls, and local government misrule. The system is already under tremendous strain; nearly 282 million people in 59 countries faced acute food insecurity last year, including over 36 million children under five who were acutely malnourished.

“Stopping the distribution of food was a disaster,” remarked Abune Tesfaselassie Medhin, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Adigrat in Tigray. “People were dying, the health of children and elders worsened… It is a sin.”

This report represents the first comprehensive account of the aid theft and its consequences for Ethiopians, based on previously unreported findings from the WFP investigation and USAID's preliminary probe. Journalists also interviewed more than 20 individuals familiar with the case, including U.S., UN, and Ethiopian officials, diplomats, and aid workers.

The identity of those behind the food diversion scheme remains unclear, as USAID and the WFP continue their investigations.

In response to inquiries, the WFP stated it takes measures to investigate and prevent the misuse of food assistance when it detects the illegal sale of substantial quantities of humanitarian supplies.

Ethiopian and Tigrayan officials denied that their militaries received diverted food aid. The Tigrayan government claimed that aid recipients often “contributed” to what it termed a “citizen army.”

One clear outcome of this scandal is the widening rift between USAID and the WFP, the two major humanitarian organizations that work together to provide life-saving food aid to millions. USAID plans to phase out the WFP as its food distributor in Tigray and northern Ethiopia within nine months, opting instead for other aid groups.

Both organizations maintain that they are valued partners. USAID attributed its decision to utilize different aid groups in northern Ethiopia to “cost efficiencies” and “lower projected needs.”

Andrew Mitchell, former British minister for Africa, expressed his dismay, stating, “The diversion of food was a disgrace. You can't expect American taxpayers to support starving people if they are informed that the funds have been stolen by military personnel.”

The WFP continues to grapple with food diversion and related crimes in Ethiopia, as indicated in an internal document. The WFP's “Monthly Incident Report” for August reported 39 cases of aid diversion, theft, beneficiary extortion, and instances of donated food being sold in local markets. The WFP characterized these as “minor incidents” not indicative of large-scale diversion.

U.S. Senator James E. Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, labeled the diversion of food aid “intolerable.” He stated, “This system denied millions of people access to lifesaving aid while enabling corrupt officials and armed combatants to serve their own objectives. Those responsible for the diversion must be held accountable.”

A HISTORY OF FAMINE

Ethiopia gained international attention during the famine crises of the 1970s and 1980s, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands due to starvation exacerbated by drought and conflict. The crisis was highlighted by “Live Aid,” a transatlantic concert in 1985 featuring major rock stars that raised approximately $100 million.

In the past three decades, Ethiopia has made significant progress, particularly in agriculture. Droughts and poor harvests no longer lead to famines. However, the country is not immune to the primary cause of famine today: war.

Ethiopia waged a brutal border conflict with Eritrea from 1998 to 2000. A peace deal was signed in 2018, which earned Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, the Nobel Peace Prize. However, in November 2020, Abiy launched a military campaign against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which had previously ruled Ethiopia and still controls Tigray. Eritrean troops supported Abiy’s forces, leading to widespread occupation in Tigray.

The war, which concluded in November 2022, resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and left millions hungry, making it one of the world’s deadliest conflicts in recent history. Although fighting has ceased, hunger persists, with millions of Ethiopians still requiring food assistance, according to the UN.

The diversion of aid uncovered in Tigray last year is not an isolated incident; theft and misdirection of food and other foreign assistance have been reported for several years, according to diplomats and aid officials.

Just months after the conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020, aid was reportedly being stolen. In March 2021, two senior aid workers visited Adigrat in Tigray, where they observed sacks of USAID-donated grain being loaded into vehicles and donkey carts instead of being distributed to people in need.

The vehicles displayed Eritrean license plates and appeared to be en route to Eritrea, according to one of the aid workers, who reported the incident to WFP and USAID officials.

The Eritrean government denied that its military received diverted food aid, asserting, “Why would we steal paltry items donated to others?”

In another instance, a senior UN official witnessed Eritrean soldiers loading trucks with what he believed was WFP food aid, which was then seen leaving Ethiopia. The official reported his observations to both the WFP and USAID. A diplomat corroborated that the official shared this information with the two organizations.

Moreover, there are allegations that the WFP itself was involved in aid diversion. In 2022, WFP officials directed truck convoy leaders to drop off aid in areas of Tigray and Amhara where no recipients were present. One convoy of 20 trucks was sent to a location near Sheraro in Tigray, then occupied by Eritrean troops and devoid of aid recipients.

QUESTIONABLE NAMES

Aid workers and diplomats describe a humanitarian system vulnerable to exploitation, where Ethiopian officials, not relief agencies, determine who receives assistance. Over the years, officials have inflated beneficiary lists by hundreds of thousands of questionable names.

Unlike in many countries, where the WFP identifies and registers those in need, the organization relied on handwritten lists provided by central and regional governments until early last year. One aid worker recounted how authorities would submit lists of around 100,000 names, which were then entered into spreadsheets by hired typists, leading to numerous duplicates. The worker suspected the government inflated these lists to skim excess aid.

The WFP’s own internal assessments have acknowledged the issue. In March 2021, WFP staff warned that “the lack of verification” of beneficiary lists “leads to excessive aid distribution to non-eligible beneficiaries.” In 2022, WFP staff noted in a confidential report that inflation of beneficiary lists was a recurrent issue with “no substantial solution.”

Despite these warnings, the WFP did not implement stronger beneficiary registration until the end of the civil war in November 2022. By that time, it was too late to prevent the diversion of aid that had already occurred.