The UN's World Food Programme says that it has to suspend aid for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia due to a lack of funding, while the country faces tensions and rising food insecurity.
Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise in Ethiopia as ongoing conflict, regional instability, displacement, drought and economic shocks leave millions without sufficient nutritious food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned this Tuesday.
But the organisation’s life-saving response has been severely hampered by critical funding shortfalls as 3.6 million of the most vulnerable are at imminent risk of losing food assistance, including malnutrition treatment for 650,000 women and children.
"WFP is being forced to halt treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children in May due to insufficient funding. WFP had planned to reach two million mothers and children with life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025," the UN agency said in a statement.
Aid freeze
WFP had planned to reach two million mothers and children with life-saving nutrition assistance in 2025, but like other aid agencies, it has been caught in the crosshairs of funding cuts by US President Donald Trump, who signed an executive order freezing all foreign aid for three months shortly after his inauguration in January.
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More than 10 million people are now facing hunger in the east African country of around 130 million, the UN agency said.
Malnutrition rates are alarmingly high, it added, with 4.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and children in need of treatment. And in parts of Somali, Oromia, Tigray, and Afar regions, child wasting has surpassed the 15 percent emergency threshold.
Multiple crises
Ethiopia, home to some 130 million people, is still recovering from a brutal civil war between federal forces and rebels in the northern region of Tigray between November 2020 and November 2022 that killed at least 600,000 people.
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Fears of a potential new war in Tigray and Amhara regions even emerged in recent weeks after neighbouring Eritrea reportedly ordered a nationwide military mobilisation and Ethiopia deployed troops toward the border.
Humanitarian needs in Ethiopia are also rising due to conflict in neighbouring countries, WFP added, with 800,000 refugees in the country, including 100,000 Sudanese, while escalating insecurity in northeastern South Sudan could drive 10,000 more refugees across the border.
Despite funds from many governments and individual donors, WFP in Ethiopia faces a funding shortfall of $222 million (€210 million) between April and September 2025.
Without urgent new funding, 3.6 million of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable people will lose access to WFP’s life-saving food and nutrition assistance in the coming weeks, the UN agency said.
(with AFP)
