FEWS NET and WFP warned that Crisis (IPC Phase 3) food-security outcomes would likely continue through January 2020 in the Bale lowlands, East and West Hararghe in Oromia, large parts of Somali Region, and northeastern Afar. Their June 2019 outlook update said only one round of assistance had been delivered against the year’s humanitarian response plan, and that a break in the Productive Safety Net Programme food pipeline was likely at the end of June.
If food aid did not resume after mid-July, the worst-affected households in those Crisis areas — though not twenty percent of the population — could tip into Emergency (IPC Phase 4), with acute malnutrition rising further, the agencies said.
Below-average Gu/Genna rains left southeastern pastoral areas facing Crisis through at least November because pasture and water recovered poorly and livestock income stayed weak. A near-average Deyr season was expected to improve animal condition only gradually. Belg harvests were also estimated below average across Oromia, Tigray, SNNPR, and Amhara after delayed and erratic rains, cutting household food access especially in lowland Bale and East and West Hararghe.
The outlook underlined how weather shocks and aid gaps can stack on top of Ethiopia’s displacement crisis, and why early pipeline repairs matter as much as rainfall forecasts.
Sources: ReliefWeb / FEWS NET