"While we will temporarily halt food aid assistance in Ethiopia, nutrition assistance to children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, school meals programs, and activities for building the resilience of farmers and pastoralists will continue uninterrupted," the statement said.
The WFP vowed to put together a comprehensive action plan that would strengthen food safeguards and controls in Ethiopia, use technology to identify those most in need, reinforce food tracking all the way to beneficiary families and improve the reporting of violations.
The move comes on the heels of USAID's announcement on Thursday that it was suspending aid in Ethiopia after detecting food misappropriation.
Last month, aid shipments to Ethiopia's Tigray region were put on hold by the WFP and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) amid an ongoing internal examination by local authorities into the misappropriation of food that was designated for people in need.