The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society handed out seeds and farm tools between 13 and 23 June 2019 to about 42,000 people affected by the September 2018 fighting between Gumuz and Oromo communities in western Ethiopia, the Red Cross committee said. Those helped included people who had returned home to 13 localities in Yaso and Haro Limmu districts.
Hussein Ibrahim Rasool of the Red Cross committee said more than 14,400 returnees in Haro Limmu district, in the East Wollega zone of Oromia, each received 50 kilograms of teff seed and two farm tools. More than 28,000 returnees and residents in Yaso district, in the Kamashi zone of Benishangul-Gumuz, received 50 kilograms of haricot beans and two tools.
“We are very happy with the seeds and tools we received from the Red Cross as it will help us to cultivate our farms and secure food which we are in dire need,” said Herpe Mekonnen, a single mother of five. Shanko Bersisa, 45, from Dango village in Yaso, has seven people to feed. “With good rain I can harvest 20 quintals of haricot bean per hectare which will be enough to feed my family,” he said. A quintal is 100 kilograms.
“The Red Cross is the first humanitarian organization to respond to the needs of the people displaced by ethnic conflict,” said Aga Abera, a food security official with the Yaso district administration. The September 2018 clashes killed many people and drove tens of thousands from their homes, according to the Red Cross.
Sources: ReliefWeb (ICRC)