Ethiopia is in urgent need of food aid. LWF, Caritas Internationalis, ACT Alliance, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the World Council of Churches have sent a joint letter to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) expressing concern about the suspension of food aid to Ethiopia.
An LWF cash distribution in Tigray. The payments are being checked with ID cards, and signed for with finger prints. Photo:LWF/ Daniel ZeMichael
US authorities called to restore “critically-needed lifeline”
(LWI) - Ethiopia is in urgent need of food aid, state the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and partners in a letter on to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) about the suspension of food aid to the country at the Horn of Africa.
The US agency suspended its humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia following reports of the misuse of food aid in Ethiopia, resulting also in a suspension of aid by the World Food Program.
“The concerns that have been identified regarding misuse of food aid are serious and warrant thorough investigation and correction,” write the ecumenical partners,“ write LWF, Caritas Internationalis, ACT Alliance, the World Evangelical Alliance and the World Council of Churches in their letter to USAID administrator Samantha Power.
However, people and communities in need of aid, „must not suffer the consequences of this situation.“ The humanitarian situation in the country has sharply deteriorated in recent weeks „and will continue to deteriorate if urgent action is not taken. The consequences will inevitably entail more hunger, suffering and death.“
The consequences will inevitably entail more hunger, suffering and death.
Ecumenical Partners letter to USAID
„We ask for your consideration of these concerns and appeals, and for urgent action to restore this critically-needed lifeline to so many Ethiopian children, women and men,“ the letter to administrator Power concludes.
Churches in Ethiopia call for aid
Local Ethiopian faith actors have outlined that the measure comes at a very critical time, when millions of people in Ethiopia depend on humanitarian assistance. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, which is a member of the LWF, andthe Ethiopian Catholic Eparchy of Adigrat, have all issued statements to that fact.
“Ethiopia has passed through challenging times in the past three years, facing the war, internal conflicts, natural and man-made disasters, write EECMY and the Catholic bishops conference in a joint statement, adding that more than 20 million people urgently need food assistance. “We condemn this act of taking away food from the hungry which is morally and ethically not acceptable.”
LWF is present in Ethiopia through the Evangelical Lutheran Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) and through its World Service country program of LWF World Service. Both provide humanitarian and development aid to refugees from Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, as well as vulnerable communities.
LWF is strongly committed to transparency and accountability to the people we work with and communities, partners, and donors. LWF is aligned with international standards, such as the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) and the SPHERE project (Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response) and have developed our own complaints-handling.
