Ethiopia - Northern Ethiopia Humanitarian Update Situation Report, 3 February 2022

HIGHLIGHTS

• Across northern Ethiopia, it is expected that constant humanitarian food assistance will be required at least throughout 2022.

• The recent fighting in the Afar region caused the displacement of thousands of people and access remains difficult.

• Over 811,000 people assisted with food under the recent distribution cycle and over 420,000 people under the previous distribution cycle between 24 -30 January in Amhara.

• The delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray via Semera-Abala-Mekelle road remains suspended since 15 December due to ongoing clashes and insecurity.

• More than 2,500 children, including over 1,000 girls, received education support through informal learning programs in Afar during the reporting week.

KEY FIGURES

9.4M People targeted in Amhara, Afar and Tigray

63,110 Refugees in Sudan since 7 November

FUNDING

$957M Requirements Northern Ethiopia

$337.5 Outstanding gap

BACKGROUND

Situation Overview

The situation in northern Ethiopia remains tense and volatile. While the situation in Tigray and Amhara regions was relatively calm during the reporting week with static lines of contact, heavy clashes were reported in Afar Region, along the border with Tigray, including in Abala, Berhale, Dalol, Erebti, Koneba and Megale woredas. These recent hostilities are further putting civilian lives at risk, increasing the humanitarian needs notably through higher populations’ displacement impacting livelihoods, and restricted access hindering humanitarian delivery to affected areas in Afar.

According to the Afar regional authorities, more than 200,000 people have been displaced due to the recent fighting in the region and are scattered in remote areas with little or no access to critical items such as food and water. Reportedly, several internally displaced persons (IDPs) have arrived in Afdera town. Humanitarian partners could not verify the displacement figures as well as assess the needs of the displaced populations due to access constraints. The situation of the newly displaced people, however, is anticipated to be dire. This wave of IDPs comes on top of a previous caseload of previously displaced people, who have been returning to their places of origin, thus increasing the number of vulnerable people in need of urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance.

The fighting in Afar continued impeding the delivery of humanitarian supplies into Tigray by road, via Semera-Abala-Mekelle, which has not been possible since 15 December. Further, the level of humanitarian supplies that was allowed through the Semera- Abbala- Mekelle route has been far below what is needed for months. Overall, 1,338 trucks have entered the region since 12 July, which represents 9 per cent of the required supplies needed to meet the vast scale of humanitarian needs of 5.2 million people, or 90 per cent of the population in Tigray.

Fuel delivery is still restricted with no fuel for humanitarian operations allowed into Tigray since 2 August, except for two WFP trucks. Unable to receive sufficient fuel loans locally, partners had to reduce, postpone, or cancel critical operations such as distributions of food, water, medicine, and nutrition. Child protection services by one partner had to be completely suspended in the South-Eastern zone for lack of fuel and cash.

Returns of some IDPs continued to be reported during the week with continued needs to provide humanitarian assistance to returnees. Mapping of return locations, confirming the number of people returned, and assessing damages in return areas are ongoing. In Amhara, it is estimated that more than half a million people have returned to South Wello, North Wello and North Shewa since mid-December. In Tigray, more than 9,600 returned from Mekelle to their places of origin in five zones.

A new food security assessment by World Food Programme released on 28 January shows that almost 40 per cent of the people in Tigray are suffering from an extreme lack of food. It found that 83 percent of people (4.6 million people) are food insecure, while 13 per cent of children under five and half of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. In Amhara region, food insecurity has more than doubled in five months with more than 14 per cent of children under five and almost a third of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. In Afar region, recent health screening data shows malnutrition rates for children under five at 28 per cent, far above the emergency threshold of 15 per cent.

Across northern Ethiopia, it is estimated that on average, crisis-affected families were getting less than 30 per cent of their caloric needs in the past months. It is expected that constant humanitarian food assistance will be required at least throughout 2022. Meanwhile, more than 9 million people in northern Ethiopia need humanitarian food assistance.

As the flow of humanitarian and commercial supplies into Tigray remains severely restricted and insufficient, the prices for basic goods continue to rise while people’s purchasing power is diminishing. Diets, for instance, are increasingly impoverished as food items become unavailable and families rely almost exclusively on cereals while limiting portion sizes and the number of daily meals stretch further. Families are exhausting all means to survive, with three quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies. Community-based support has been critical for many in maintaining their minimal needs and consumption over many months and this support is increasingly dwindling.