This marks the first time WFP has suspended its malnutrition program in Ethiopia since the 1980s famine crisis.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced Tuesday it will suspend food assistance for 650,000 malnourished women and children in Ethiopia starting in May, citing a catastrophic funding shortfall. The agency warned that without immediate financial support, 3.6 million people could lose access to critical aid in the coming weeks.
“The situation has become untenable. We are being forced to abandon those most in need,” said Zlatan Milišić, WFP’s Ethiopia director. The decision underscores a mounting crisis in a country where over 10 million people face acute hunger, compounded by regional conflicts, drought, and cascading cuts to global humanitarian budgets.
The funding crisis stems mainly from sharp reductions in U.S. foreign aid – historically the WFP’s primary funding source – implemented during the Trump administration. The $1.8 billion in U.S. aid Ethiopia received in 2023 made it sub-Saharan Africa’s largest American assistance recipient – a crucial lifeline for its 125 million people.
Ethiopia’s food insecurity crisis—already one of the world’s most severe—is worsening as fighting in neighboring Sudan and South Sudan displaces over a million people. Climate shocks, including looming drought conditions, threaten to push millions closer to famine.
Milišić stressed that Ethiopia’s fragile populations now teeter on the edge: “Millions are one shock away from freefall. Without urgent donor action, children will starve.” The cuts leave the WFP unable to respond to new displacements or climate-driven crop failures.
The suspension hits hardest in regions like Tigray, still reeling from a two-year civil war, and areas where conflicts over land and resources are surging. Analysts fear the aid vacuum could destabilize a nation of 125 million people, further straining a region already buckling under refugee flows.
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