Ethiopia

Overview

About 8.4 million people in Ethiopia need humanitarian assistance, due to internal conflict, international displacement, and recurrent natural hazards. As a secondary effect of the intercommunal violence in 2019, it is estimated that there is an IDP population of 2 million people primarily located in the Amhara, SNNP and Benishangul Gumuz woreda’s. Ethiopia also hosts more than 760,000 refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea. Most of them live in camp settings.?

Recurrent natural hazards, drought, and flooding result in humanitarian needs. Several consecutive years of drought in southern and southeastern Ethiopia have led to worsening food security and disrupted the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers and herders. Nationally, 8.5 million people require emergency food assistance in June 2020. The states with IPC 3 or higher are Afar, Oromiya, Somali and Tigray.?

INFORM measures Ethiopia's risk of humanitarian crisis and disaster as high at 6.9/10. Meanwhile, the lack of coping capacity stands at 6.8/10 and vulnerability at 6.6/10.?

Latest Developments

26/11/2020: The escalation of conflict in the Tigray region has left at least 600,000 people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Currently there is no humanitarian corridor, with limited access for those organisations able to operate under a federally-imposed near-total communications blackout in Tigray. More than 43,000 refugees have crossed the border into Sudan since 4 November. At least 17,000 are children. The border with Kassala state, Sudan has been partially closed due to the violence, hampering emergency aid delivery to Tigray.?

12/11/2020: Escalation of armed conflict in Tigray region has resulted in an unknown number of casualties; in the hundreds according to federal government sources. Humanitarian access to Tigray, where more than 2 million people were already in need of assistance, has been disrupted. An additional 96,000 Eritrean refugees and 100,000 IDPs in the region could be impacted by continued conflict. Between 6,000 and 8,000 refugees have already crossed the border into neighbouring Sudan. A telecommunication blackout imposed by the federal government on 4 November 2020 is further limiting humanitarian operations.?

29/09/2020: 15 people were killed and one injured following an attack in Benishangul-Gumuz region (western Ethiopia). Four of the victims were women. The assailants have not yet been identified. Continued attacks in the region throughout September have forced at least 300 people to flee their homes.?

15/09/2020: The Desert Locust outbreak is aggravating the dire food security situation in the country. 1.4 million people are already facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity, while 8.5 million are currently in Crisis level (IPC Phase 3) or above. The regions of Afar and Somali are the worst affected. Projections indicate that 11.1 million people will face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) and above levels of food insecurity by January 2021. Many of those affected are refugees or displaced people.?

13/08/2020: As of 3 August, 17 IDPs have tested positive for COVID-19 in and around Qolojii and Gabogabo IDP sites, in Somali region. These are the first positive cases of COVID-19 in the camps, with the risk the situation may worsen due to limited testing and no contact tracing currently in place.?

11/08/2020 Floods have displaced more than 30,000 people since 20 July in Afar, Gambella, Oromia and SNNPR. From 1 August, flash floods and overflow of Awash River displaced 20,000 people in Afar region alone. Flooding increases the risk of communicable diseases, including cholera. Between May 2019-May 2020, 9,000 cholera cases were registered countrywide.?