Local officials and researchers say hunger has killed at least 700 people in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in recent weeks after the United States and United Nations suspended food aid.
The real question is was that funding paused because that money isn’t actually being used to buy food for Ethiopians.
Apparently wheat meant for needy people was being stolen with the involvement of senior Ethiopian government officials, so the food aid has been put on hold till the corrupt officials are removed from aid distribution and stronger checks against theft are introduced.
Some people just cannot stop being scum.
In this case it’s a fairly intractable problem. The famine itself was caused by war between the Ethiopian Government and the province of Tigray. Deliberate crop destruction and aid blockades were features of that war.
It seems senior Government officials are involved in diverting and selling grain in peacetime. It doesn’t seem the government is all that invested in seeing that aid go to Tigray.
But now the aid is being paused for the rest of Ethiopia as well, and we are seeing more deaths.
The answer to your question is in the second paragraph of the article:
The U.N. and the U.S. first suspended food aid to Tigray in March after the discovery of a scheme to steal donated wheat intended for needy people. They extended the pause to the rest of Ethiopia in early June, affecting 20 million people in need, or about one-sixth of the country’s population.