By The Star Staff Writer
ETHIOPIA, Addis Ababa – The United States unveiled $170 million humanitarian aid for Ethiopia to help it deal with the growing internal displacement crisis, natural disasters and refugees across the country, bringing Washington’s total assistance to more than $802 million since October 2016.
The U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday said an estimated 8.5 million people in Ethiopia need urgent humanitarian assistance.
“This assistance will provide vital humanitarian aid to millions of Ethiopians and to refugees who are seeking shelter in Ethiopia,” said the agency, urging the Ethiopian government and other donors to meet the needs of vulnerable people in the country.
The new funding includes emergency food and nutrition assistance, life-saving medical care, shelter and safe drinking water, as well as programs to improve sanitation and hygiene programs to treat and stop the spread of preventable diseases, said the agency in a statement.
Chronic tensions between Oromia and Southern regional states have increased in April this year, leading to deaths, large-scale displacements and destruction of properties.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the communal violence in Ethiopia “presents a challenge” for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed whose “new measures to bring unity and reconciliation have spurred great enthusiasm within the country and high international praise.”
On Thursday, eight aid agencies, including Care, Save the Children, Oxfam and World Vision, said they needed $117.7 million urgently to help 818,250 people who were recently displaced in Oromia and Southern regions. Since June 3, the two regions saw a major surge in displacement following renewed violence along the border areas of Gedeo and West Guji.
The eight agencies said the Ethiopian government and donors have mobilized about $6.99 million after diverting funds intended for other programs to the new crisis.
“Aid agencies warn that without a scale up of assistance, the situation of the (displaced people) is likely to further deteriorate,” the agencies said, noting that less than half of the $1.6 billion requested for the country’s Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan or HRDP has so far been received.
The Ethiopian government and humanitarian partners have jointly launched a Response Plan requesting an additional $117.7 million for the coming six months to deliver immediate life-sustaining support for those affected by the Gedeo and West Guji inter-communal violence, said the UN.
The UN has released earlier this month $15 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund, or CERF, to scale up its humanitarian assistance to the victims of the communal violence in Ethiopia. The UN set up the CERF in 2005 as a global fund ‘by all’ and ‘for all’, and has so far spent more than $5 billion, which was used to assist hundreds of millions of people across 100 countries and territories, according to the UN.
The eight aid agencies called on the Ethiopian government to expeditiously resolve communal conflicts and find durable solutions to the growing internal displacement cases in the country.