Disappointment over aid deliveries

Ethiopia’s official relief wing, The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), also expressed anger against the US, saying the American aid pledge had been “the talk of the world” but had not yet arrived. Spokesperson Getachew Tesfaye said at a weekly press briefing that donors had defaulted on repaying grains borrowed from the Emergency Food Security Reserve, and “not a single quintal” had arrived from an EU pledge of 260,000 metric tonnes.

The United States government has provided “the lion’s share” of aid to Ethiopia’s drought victims, said humanitarian sources, as well as playing a prominent role in trying to resolve the conflict - “an anti-US demonstration won’t go down very well with donors”, one said. But there is “disappointment with rates of delivery compared to size of pledge” in Ethiopia, agreed the source.

A shipment of some 90,000 tonnes of US aid has been off-loaded at Djibouti port, but delivery is slow. According to humanitarian sources in Addis Ababa delivery of aid is being held up by increased centralisation imposed by the government, which, among other restrictions, prevents NGOs and agencies hiring trucks directly and increases tariffs. Heavy rains have also caused flooding in some of the affected areas, cutting off roads, closing down airstrips and slowing transportation dramatically.