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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 6 OctOber 2023
US resumes some food aid deliveries to Ethiopia after assistance

was halted over 'widespread' theft

Associated Press USAID spokesperson said.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — USAID and the United Na-
The United States Agency tions World Food Program
for International Develop- in June halted all food aid
ment said Thursday it is re- to Ethiopia after an inter-
suming food deliveries to nal investigation found do-
hundreds of thousands of nated food intended for
refugees in Ethiopia, four millions of hungry people
months after assistance there was being diverted
was halted over a wide- on a “widespread” scale.
spread scheme to steal Both agencies had already
supplies. paused food assistance to
The decision was made the war-torn province of Ti-
after Ethiopia’s govern- gray in March.
ment agreed to remove At the time, USAID officials
itself from the dispatch, told The Associated Press
storage and distribution of that the diversion scheme
refugee food supplies, a could be the largest-ever
USAID spokesperson said. theft of humanitarian food.
Food aid will be restored to Since then, thousands of
roughly 1 million refugees deaths linked to the food
from Sudan, South Sudan, pause have been reported
Somalia, Eritrea, and else- in Tigray.
where. An Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of wheat to be allocated to each waiting family after it The WFP restarted small-
However, food assistance was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern scale distributions in some
Ethiopia on May 8, 2021.
has not resumed for the (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) areas of Tigray on July 31
20.1 million Ethiopians who as it tested “enhanced
rely on it as the country cluding biometric tests and assistance gets to those will help ensure that assis- controls and measures."
grapples with internal con- GPS tracking across its op- who need it most.” tance is provided based on Last month, the leader of
flict and drought. erations worldwide to help “We continue to work with assessed vulnerability and the Tigray region said 480
The agency also said it has address risks of diversion the Ethiopian government need, consistent with inter- people had been arrested
implemented measures in- and to “help ensure food on additional reforms that national best practice,” the there over the theft.q

Drone attack kills 80 and wounds 240 at a packed Syrian military

graduation ceremony, official says

Ghabash said. Syria’s mili- son added. The military did in Damascus, Syria remains
tary said in an earlier state- not provide any casualty divided, with a northwest
ment that drones laden numbers, but Syria's state enclave under the control
with explosives targeted television said the govern- of al-Qaida-linked militants
the ceremony packed with ment announced a three- from the Hayat Tahrir al-
young officers and their day state of mourning Sham group and Turkish-
families as it was wrap- starting Friday. The Britain- backed opposition fight-
ping up. Without naming based Syrian Observatory ers. The country’s northeast
any particular group, the for Human Rights, an oppo- is under control of U.S.-
military accused insurgents sition war monitor, and the backed Kurdish-led Syrian
“backed by known interna- pro-government Sham FM Democratic Forces.
tional forces” of the attack radio station reported the The city of Homs is deep in
and said “it will respond strikes earlier. government-held territory,
with full force and decisive- Syria's crisis started with far from front lines where
ness to these terrorist orga- peaceful protests against government and rebel
In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, nizations, wherever they ex- President Bashar Assad’s forces routinely skirmish.
a Syrian White Helmet civil defense worker runs at the site where ist.” No group immediately government in March 2011 After the drone attack,
a shell struck in the outskirts of the northern town of Jisr al- claimed responsibility for but quickly morphed into a Syrian government forc-
Shoughour, west of the city of Idlib, Syria, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023. the attack as Syria endures full-blown civil war after the es shelled villages in Idlib
(Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP) its 13th year of conflict. government’s brutal crack- province, in the northwest.
By Kareem Chehayeb and an army that’s been fight- U.N. Secretary-General An- down on the protesters. The At least 10 civilians were
Albert aji ing a civil war for more than tonio Guterres “expressed tide turned in Assad’s fa- wounded in the towns of
Associated Press a decade. deep concern” about the vor against rebel groups in Al-Nayrab and Sarmin east
BEIRUT (AP) — A drone at- The strike killed civilians, drone attack in Homs as 2015, when Russia provided of Idlib city, according to
tack hit a crowded mili- including six children, as well as reports of retaliatory key military backing to Syr- opposition-held northwest-
tary graduation ceremony well as military personnel, shelling in northwest Syria, ia, as well as Iran and the ern Syria’s civil defense or-
Thursday in the Syrian city of and there were concerns his spokesperson Stephane Lebanese militant group ganization known as the
Homs, killing 80 people and the death toll could rise Dujarric said. Guterres con- Hezbollah. White Helmets. Govern-
wounding 240, the health as many of the wounded demned all violence and Although most Arab gov- ment forces continue to
minister said, in one of the were in serious condition, called for a nationwide ernments have restored shell other areas in the en-
deadliest recent attacks on Health Minister Hassan al- cease-fire, the spokesper- ties with the government clave. q