In light of the "surge in malnutrition rates", foreign aid organizations operating in Ethiopia must resume food deliveries, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a medical charity, has insisted.
Throughout a harsh two-year struggle between the Tigray People's Liberation Front and troops loyal to the Ethiopian government, Tigray suffered severe shortages of food, gasoline, money, and medication.
More than 20 million Ethiopians, according to MSF, depend significantly on food assistance, and even before the ban took effect, MSF's medical staff had seen disturbingly high rates of global acute malnutrition.
According to MSF's medical coordinator Samreen Hussain, the situation will only worsen unless the suspension in food aid is ended.
"We already see that the food shortage is pushing vulnerable communities into harmful coping mechanisms, including selling assets as substitutes for food, begging, and child labor," the official outlined. "This situation will only worsen with a protracted suspension of food aid."
The Ethiopian government criticized the move to halt food aid, made by USAID and the WFP. The government's spokesman Legesse Tulu told journalists that the decision taken by the two crucial aid organizations "punishes millions".
He outlined that the decision was "political", emphasizing that "to hold the government solely responsible [for the diverted aid] is unacceptable".