The head of Ethiopia’s government-run relief agency, Mitiku Kassa, has been arrested on suspicion of corruption, police have said.
He is accused by the police corruption investigation unit of conspiring with a non-governmental organisation, which allegedly sold food aid and clothes intended for displaced people. The money was then allegedly used to buy a property.
Mr Mitiku, who has led Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management Commission since 2015, has grown in prominence in recent years as the face of the country’s efforts to provide support for millions of its citizens uprooted from their homes in widespread ethnic violence and more recently in the brutal civil war.
He has not yet publicly responded to the police accusations.
