Ethiopia - Situation Report, 5 Jan 2023

• The first commercial passenger flights carried by Ethiopian airlines to Tigray.

• About 368,000 people in Tigray assisted with food between 22 and 28 December.

• Malnutrition rates remain critical in Afar with the average above 15 percent of the global rate.

• Humanitarian access in Oromia remains very challenging impacting humanitarian operations.

• A nationwide measles vaccination campaign launched targeting 15.5 million children.

Situation Overview

Humanitarian supplies, mainly food, continued to be transported into Tigray Region via four corridors through Afar and Amhara regions. Between 15 November and 30 December, the Government of Ethiopia and humanitarian partners have transported 2,740 trucks or more than 101,700 metric tons (MT) of food and 309 trucks or 10,840 MT of non-food supplies including health, shelter, education, protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies. Twenty-one (21) trucks of fuel or about 830,000 liters have also been transported into the region. About 960 billion Ethiopian birr of cash have been airlifted to both Mekelle and Shire since mid-November for humanitarian operations and staffing costs. Airlifts of nutrition and health supplies have also been delivered, along with regular humanitarian passenger flights to scale up the response.

Humanitarian partners have assisted more than 3.3 million people or 61 percent of the total planned caseload of 5.4 million people in Tigray under the current round (Round 2) of food distribution for 2022, which was launched in early October, and as of 28 December. This includes about 101,000 newly displaced people since late August. Since mid-November, when humanitarian food supplies resumed to enter the region, around 38,700 MT of food has been distributed to more than 2.27 million people as of 28 December, including about 368,000 people between 22 and 28 December. Access, particularly in border areas, woredas off the main roads and locations requiring crossline movements, continues to be challenging for food distribution.

Telecommunications and electricity supply have been restored and improving as infrastructure restoration works continue, including water supply systems in several towns. The Ethiopian Airlines resumed the first passenger commercial flights to Mekelle on 28 December 2022 and to Shire on 2 January 2023.

Wegagen Bank is the first bank to officially resume banking services in Mekelle City through its 28 branches with the daily withdrawal limit of Ethiopian Bir (ETB) 1,500 on 2 January increased to ETB 2,000 on 3 January. Banking services resumed in areas in Western Tigray in November and in Shire, Alamata, and Korem in early December. Full banking services, public transport and commercial supplies are not yet resumed.

In Afar Region, and per results of the find-and-treat screening campaign for malnutrition in November (the last available data) in zones 1 to 5, malnutrition rates remain critical in at least four of the five targeted zones. Some 30 woredas reported the average Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) above 15 percent which categorized as critical. GAM rates of individual areas were found to be between 15.7 percent and 63.3 percent. In response, more than 3,100 children under five with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) got admitted to therapeutic feeding programme service sites during November, an increase by more than 28 compared to the same time previous year (November 2021). At least 46.6 percent of pregnant and lactating women were identified as acutely malnourished. Part of the response, 7,200 cartons of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food SAM treatment of at least 7,200 children have been prepositioned at the Regional Health Bureau for further distribution to woredas based on need.

Meanwhile, more than 152,000 people or some 30,480 households in Afar remain without shelter many months after devastating and often compounded effects of conflict, floods, and drought. To date, more than 77,000 households have been assisted with shelter rehabilitation ongoing for 994 households. The major challenges in providing adequate emergency shelters include lack of local shelter materials, unavailability or high cost of cargo trucks to transport the materials to relevant displacement locations, and limited funding.

In Amhara Region and bordering areas, 88,000 people in Raya Kobo and Kobo town have been assisted with food out of the targeted 174,000 people between 21 and 27 December. In Alamata area, all targeted 411,000 people were assisted but additional caseload for 300,000 people have been requested. In North Gondar, 485,000 people have been assisted and distribution for the remaining 181,000 people is in progress. In Mai Tsebri and Dima areas, 171,000 people were assisted while provision of food for 42,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) is in progress.

Most of response in return locations in North Wello, North Gondar and Wag Hamra zones in Amhara is still lagging. According to the shelter cluster, nearly 4,000 houses in these areas are fully damaged, with no capacity for repair and reconstruction. Returnees are reported to be living in substandard shelters and with limited response of non-food items and shelters in limited number of areas.

In Oromia Region, despite an increased humanitarian need, the humanitarian access situation remains very challenging and impacting humanitarian operations in Guji and West Guji zones, with ongoing conflict induced displacement in the region. As of 30 December, an estimated more than 14,000 new IDPs from Oromia arrived in Amhara Region.

Meanwhile, active cholera outbreak is ongoing in 8 woredas in Oromia and two woredas in Somali Region, affecting 55 kebeles with 738 cumulative cases reported. About 191 Cholera cases were also reported in IDP locations. In response, more than 30,700 households or more than 184,000 people were sensitized in both regions. Current clean and safe water supply coverage remains poor with more than 80 percent of cholera patients are using unsafe water sources from rivers. Active surveillance is ongoing daily along with emergency supplies to contain the outbreak.

In Benishangul Gumuz Region, more than 182,000 IDPs have returned to their places of origin, while more than 110, 000 people remain displaced of whom about 77,000 are living with the host community and more than 33,000 are living in IDP sites. Humanitarian assistance is needed for returnees.

In eastern and southern Ethiopia, communities continue to suffer from the devastating drought affecting the Horn of Africa. Livelihoods of vulnerable pastoralists and agro-pastoralists continue to be severely eroded driving food insecurity and malnutrition. It is estimated that more than 4.5 million livestock have died since late 2021, and at least 30 million weakened and emaciated livestock are at risk. At present, nearly 12 million people are estimated to be food insecure, and 8.6 million people are being targeted for water, sanitation and hygiene assistance across the drought-affected areas. The drought is also causing a health crisis where health risks related to complications from malnutrition and disease outbreaks have increased at a time when access to health services has decreased.

Humanitarian partners are scaling up assistance to meet the increased needs in support of the Government’s drought response efforts. In parallel to lifesaving interventions, few resilience initiatives are ongoing to build the resilience of chronically drought-affected communities, but more needs to be done and more funding is needed. The drought situation will continue to drive high humanitarian needs well into 2023, with a high likelihood of a sixth failed season in March-May 2023.

Nationwide, the Federal Ministry of Health, with support from humanitarian partners, launched on 22 December, an integrated measles vaccination campaign targeting 15.5 million children aged 9-59 months, including hard-to-reach populations in drought- and conflict-affected areas.

On 27 December, Disaster Risk Management Commission (DRMC) in collaboration with its partners launched a workshop on the roadmap for a multi-hazard impact-based early warning and action system in Ethiopia. The workshop brought together high-level government officials, UN agencies, donors, non-governmental organizations, and research and academic institutions. Humanitarian and development partners were called to support the implementation of this roadmap.

From 19 November to 3 December, a multi-sectoral team conducted the 2022 meher season (the main planting season from May-September) verification assessment to identify and determine the number of people affected by climatic shocks in Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, SNNP, Sidama, Southwest, Dire Dawa and Harari. A national summary report for the seasonal assessment is being prepared.