‘We blame government and aid agencies’: food relief thefts in Ethiopia leave those in need with nothing

Tigrayan women roast coffee beans over a wood stove in the school that has become home to thousands displaced by the conflict, in Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

Mulu Meresa does not know where her family’s next meal is coming from. Like the other 1.8 million people displaced by the recent war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, she and her two children rely on grain distributed by humanitarian agencies.

But food deliveries stopped after aid workers uncovered a nationwide scheme to steal supplies meant for hungry people, and Mulu has received nothing since February.