US says it’s horrified by conditions in Ethiopia after theft leads to food aid pause and deaths

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States humanitarian agency tells The Associated Press it is horrified by conditions in Ethiopia. Three months ago, the U.S. and the United Nations paused food aid for one-sixth of the country’s population over massive theft of the aid. Local officials there have reported hundreds of hunger deaths in recent weeks. In an unusually strong statement emailed to the AP, the U.S. Agency for International Development called the aid suspension “wrenching” and a measure of last resort because of the “extreme scale and coordination of food aid diversion identified across the country.” U.S. officials have said in private that this could be the biggest-ever theft of aid in any country.