US aid cuts hit Ethiopia's fragile Tigray region

Aid agencies distributing U.S. food aid in Ethiopia's war-affected Tigray region say they have had to stop feeding millions of people because of the U.S. Trump administration's restrictions on foreign aid.

They say they have no money to pay for fuel, trucks and drivers to distribute existing stockpiles because the USAID payment system isn't working while the agency is dismantled.

Gebrehiwot Gebrezgiabher, Tigray Disaster Risk Management Commissioner, said the cut will put between 1.2 and 1.4 million individuals at risk.

As a displaced person in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, 76-year-old Haile Tsege is no stranger to hunger.

“We will just die in silence,” said Tsege, one of the 2.4 million people in Tigray who depend on humanitarian grain, most of it provided by the U.S.

"Going without nourishment for even one day is difficult, much less for 90 days," he told The Associated Press. "Consequently, we fear that we are destined for death."

Ethiopia with its over 125 million people had been the biggest beneficiary of U.S. aid in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving $1.8 billion in the 2023 financial year. In addition to life-saving food, the funds were spent on HIV medications, vaccines, literacy programs and jobs creation, as well as services for 1 million refugees hosted by Ethiopia.

Most of these programs have been stopped. The USAID staffers who oversaw them have been placed on administrative leave and told not to work, as they face the threat of termination. The U.S. Embassy didn't respond to questions.

Tigray relied heavily on U.S. funds. More than two years after the war killed hundreds of thousands, full-scale recovery efforts are yet to start. The region’s health system is in ruins and hundreds of schools remain closed.