23.5 million Ethiopians are estimated to require urgent humanitarian assistance in the first three months of 2021, yet another increase from 19 million at the end of 2020, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said
In a statement issued on Friday, OCHA said the increase in the number of people requiring emergency food assistance is attributed to crippling socioeconomic impacts including COVID-19, conflict and desert locust upsurge in 2021.
OCHA said risk analysis and corresponding projections of needs indicate that this number is expected to rise slightly in the second and third quarters (23.8 million) before it reduces to 21.7 million in the last quarter of 2021.
“Ongoing conflict, desert locust invasion, recurrent climatic shocks such as floods and droughts, and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 are the key drivers of humanitarian needs in Ethiopia,” the office said,
Amidst the political transition, armed conflict and community violence remains a critical concern across Ethiopia, from Benishangul Gumuz, to Oromia, to Tigray, it said.
The office went on saying that of an estimated 2.7 million people currently internally displaced in Ethiopia, 1 million of which occurred in 2020. “Approximately 68 per cent of whom were displaced by conflict,” it added.
