UN halts food aid in Ethiopian towns after warehouses looted

The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended distribution of food aid in two northern Ethiopian towns after gunmen looted its warehouses. The United Nations said, looters from rebel Tigrayan forces held aid staff at gunpoint in the town of Kombolcha. They stole large quantities of essential food supplies, including some for malnourished children. Northern Ethiopia is facing mass starvation amid an ongoing civil war between Tigrayan and government forces. After more than a year of fighting, more than nine million people are in need of critical food supplies in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions, the UN says.
A spokesman for the UN, which runs the WFP, said its staff had faced extreme intimidation during days of looting in the industrial hub of Kombolcha in Amhara. The spokesman also accused military personnel of commandeering three WFP humanitarian trucks and using them for their own purposes.That led to the decision to halt food distribution in Kombolcha and nearby Dessie, two strategic towns in Amhara that sit on the road to the capital Addis Ababa. The Tigrayan rebels have not commented on the allegations that their fighters stole food aid. The Ethiopian government recently announced that it had recaptured the towns from the Tigray rebels. But the rebels said the army had only recovered areas they had abandoned. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the Tigray region to quash the TPLF after he said it had attacked army camps. But the rebels mounted a comeback, recapturing most of Tigray and advancing into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar. The conflict has killed thousands of people, displaced more than two million and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions, according to UN figures. US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia remains an "absolute priority" for the United States. He called on both sides to negotiate an end to the conflict and allow aid to reach those in need.