Weekly humanitarian highlights in Ethiopia - 18 April 2011

Drought Update

With drought conditions deepening across most of Somali, lowland areas of Oromia, and parts of SNNP, Tigray and Afar regions, the Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) has presented revised humanitarian requirements for the emergency response in Somali, Oromia and SNNPR over the next two months. Accordingly, some US$ 75 million is required to fund the drought response in the three regions over the next two months (April and May 2011), including $44.9 million for food aid for 2 million people; $5.2 million for targeted supplementary feeding (TSF) in response to moderate acute malnutrition; $10.3 million for livestock supports; $8.3 million for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), particularly water trucking; and $6.3 million for health and treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). DRMFSS noted that these figures represent revised requirements only for the corresponding geographic and thematic elements of the 2011 Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) launched in February 2011; for other parts of the country / sectors of response, the original HRD figures remain valid. DRMFSS also indicated that the next national needs assessment would be moved up to early May in view of the deteriorating situation in both the drought affected and belg (short rains in some highland areas)-receiving parts of the country. For more information, contact: infodrmfss@dppc.gov.et & ocha-eth@un.org