Attachments
IOM VISION
IOM Ethiopia focuses on supporting crisis-affected populations in Ethiopia, including vulnerable migrants and returnees, addressing immediate humanitarian needs, while undertaking longer-term actions to build resilience and foster sustainable peace and development.
CONTEXT ANALYSIS
The deteriorating humanitarian situation in recent years has led to increased humanitarian needs across Ethiopia, with over 20 million people – internally displaced persons (IDPs), returning IDPs, crisis-affected communities and returning migrants among them – needing humanitarian assistance and protection in 2022. As per’s DTM latest National Displacement Report (June/July 2022), 2.72 million IDPs have been identified across 11 regions in Ethiopia. Due to operational constraints, locations in Tigray were not included. Conflict in the northern parts of the country, violence in many other parts, and natural hazards such as one of the worst droughts in recent decades, frequent floods and landslides are the main drivers of displacement and needs. High levels of displacement and damage to infrastructure and basic services have exposed the population to major protection risks.
Two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia, with renewed fighting in mid-2022, have created high humanitarian needs across Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions, which remain largely unaddressed. The cessation of hostilities following a peace agreement signed in early November 2022 raises hopes for lasting peace for a region devastated by conflict. Since the signature of the peace agreement, the improved security situation in Afar, Amhara and Tigray is opening up opportunities for humanitarian access to areas so far inaccessible. Humanitarian convoys and flights to Tigray have resumed, allowing humanitarian actors to expand and scale up much-needed assistance. Alongside immediate humanitarian assistance, transition and recovery efforts will be needed for affected communities to be able to recover (OCHA, 2022).
Ethiopia is ranked 161 of 182 countries on the 2022 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) Climate Vulnerability Index with increases in temperature, erratic rainfall and unpredictability of seasonal rain, increased incidences of drought and other extreme events. Many regions in Ethiopia are currently experiencing one of the most severe La Niña-induced droughts in recent decades, with more than 8 million people acutely food insecure. The death of 3.5 million livestock due to the drought has further destroyed livelihoods. Drought-affected regions comprise threequarters of the total land area of Ethiopia with Somali, Oromia and Afar Regions the most severely impacted. 1.8 million people are displaced in drought-affected regions of Ethiopia and one out of five displaced persons in Ethiopia is displaced due to drought (as per IOM’s latest displacement report published in October 2022). One of every four migrants along the Eastern Route is from drought-affected regions of Ethiopia, and one of every four returning migrants is going back to the country’s drought-affected regions. Limited food availability is likely to lead to increased migration as populations move in search of food and pasture. These populations on the move commonly face additional barriers to accessing health care and therefore are more at risk of ill health including malnutrition. Poor living conditions in temporary settlements also predispose populations to outbreaks of communicable diseases including cholera and measles. Furthermore, limited healthcare access can fuel tensions between displaced and host communities.
Ethiopia is also an important departure, transit and destination country for mixed migration flows in the Horn of Africa. Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians, primarily youth, migrate towards the Middle East (mainly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), South Africa, and Europe every year. Forced migration due to climate change has worsened in recent years, exposing vulnerable populations to trafficking in persons and other forms of exploitation. Between January and October 2022, IOM registered over 100,000 returning migrants to Ethiopia, with the majority – more than 71,000 – coming from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This trend has brought the total number of migrants forcefully returned from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to half a million since 2017. An alarming number of migrants arrive destitute and with serious medical and psychiatric conditions which challenge the local capacities. The conflict in northern Ethiopia has made the situation of migrants even more precarious, with returns to home communities made impossible and migrants becoming stranded. Approximately one-third of all returns from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia originate from areas devastated by conflict.