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Ethiopia

Ethiopia Weekly Humanitarian Bulletin, 25 April 2016

Attachments

Key Issues

  • Ethiopia Government and Humanitarian partners commence with visits to donor capitals to raise awareness on urgent needs for increased funding for the country’s El Niñoinduced drought crisis.

  • The Humanitarian Requirement Document (HRD) which seeks US$1.4 billion to assist 10.2 million Ethiopians in 2016 has received about US$800 million from the Government and the international community. But ongoing response is threatened by critical funding gaps in all sectors.

  • OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) conclude a four-day visits to Ethiopia to review the role of OCHA Ethiopia in supporting coordination and current humanitarian response; including visits to drought affected communities.

Ethiopia is responding to an El Niño-caused drought emergency: The El Niño global climactic event has wreaked havoc on Ethiopia’s summer rains. This comes on the heels of failed spring rains, and has driven food insecurity, malnutrition and water shortages in affected areas of the country. A well-coordinated response is already underway and expanding rapidly, although the scale of the developing emergency exceeds resources available to date. Given the lead times necessary for the procurement of relief items, the Government and its international partners have called for early action to this slow onset natural disaster.

Government and Humanitarian Partners Visit Donor Capitals to Raise Awareness on the Scale and Scope of current El Nino Induced Drought

A Humanitarian Country Team visit to donor capitals to raise awareness on the urgent need for increased funding to Ethiopia’s El Niño-induced droughts kicked off on April 25 2016. The visits which commenced in Oslo, Norway on April 25, proceeds to Geneva on April 26 to join ‘A Global Call for Support and Action: Responding to El Niño’, an advocacy on the need for increased resources in countries hit by El Niño. Representatives from Ethiopia’s National Disaster Risk Management Commission will join the Washington and New York visits from April 28 – May 5.

OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) Commends Ethiopia Government on Leadership for Drought Response

Donor representatives from 22 countries visited Ethiopia between April 18 – 22 as part of the OCHA Donor Support Group (ODSG) annual mission to gain first-hand insight into OCHA’s role, function and challenges in coordinating the humanitarian in Ethiopia. The group included representatives from the Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, ECHO, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK, and the USA

The team visited two drought affected regions: Amhara and Tigray, met with Government officials and partners providing assistance in supplementary feeding, health centres, WASH and livelihood interventions.

Tensions in Gambella halt assessments in the region.

On 15 April 2016, armed men, suspected to be ethnic Murle from South Sudan, attacked some 10 Ethiopian villages throughout Gambella Regional State. According to the Government of Ethiopia, 20,000 people were displaced, 208 people killed and at least 110 mostly children kidnapped during the attacks. On 21 April, Disaster Prevention Food Security Agency (DPFSA), Regional Bureau of Women and Children, Regional Education Bureau, ACF, ERCs, IOM, IRC,
UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOCHA, WFP and WHO participated in a needs assessment mission to Lare woreda. The team observed a WFP/DPFSA food distribution.

The Government distributed emergency food and some NFIs to the people displaced, however much more is needed. The mission to other affected areas was postponed as tensions peaked following a car accident on the same day in Jewi refugee camp. Disgruntled civilians targeted government and humanitarian assets including vehicles and offices within Gambella town which led to movement restrictions, the withdrawal of UN agencies and non-essential NGO staff members from refugee camps. While the Government of Ethiopia is working with the Government of South Sudan to return the abductees to their families, NGO partners are providing essential water supply and nutrition interventions with a skeleton staff. WFP completed the monthly distribution of food before the recent events. For more information, contact: ocha-eth@un.org

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