The United States provides nearly $313 million in additional humanitarian assistance to people in northern Ethiopia

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing nearly $313 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia. Across the Afar, Amhara, and Tigray regions, continued fighting and lack of humanitarian access has left as many as 9 million people facing severe food insecurity and has forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes. In Tigray alone, more than 90 percent of people need aid, while across all three northern regions as many as 1 million people are projected to face famine-like conditions by June.

The new funding announced today will support emergency food and nutrition assistance to meet the needs of nearly 7 million people; strengthen community health facilities and mobile health teams to combat infectious diseases; provide humanitarian protection services, such as support for survivors of gender-based violence, psychosocial services, and child protection activities; and bolster logistics support to deliver aid to people in remote and hard-to-reach areas.

The United States remains committed to helping the Ethiopian people. Humanitarian partners are scaling up assistance to affected people in Afar and Amhara regions, where access has allowed aid workers to reach more than 4 million people with life-saving food since January.

At the same time, humanitarian partners are working with federal and local authorities to open up overland road access into the Tigray region. With two initial convoys since early April, USAID partners transported enough food and nutrition supplies to meet the needs of approximately 105,000 people in Tigray. This development builds on expanded air operations funded by USAID, by which humanitarian partners have delivered more than 600 metric tons of medical, nutrition, and shelter supplies since December. Significant, sustained, unconditional, and unhindered humanitarian road access is the only way to meet the scale of need, and the restoration of communication, financial, and other vital services are urgently needed in the Tigray region. To best utilize new humanitarian funding, authorities must work in collaboration with humanitarian organizations to facilitate humanitarian access for aid trucks to enter Tigray, as well as to reach people in need in Afar and Amhara.

The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian aid to the northern Ethiopia response efforts, and we remain committed to helping all people in need across Ethiopia. The U.S. has provided more than $995 million in humanitarian assistance to northern Ethiopia since the crisis began, including more than $885 million through USAID and nearly $110 million through the U.S. Department of State. This assistance is vital, but much more is needed. As the Russian Federation’s war on Ukraine only threatens to further compound dire needs amid rising global food prices, Ethiopia is an immediate concern based on the country’s high levels of food insecurity and reliance on wheat imports from Ukraine. While humanitarian assistance is critical for saving lives, a political solution is the only way to end the suffering of the Ethiopian people. The United States strongly supports the recent truce reached by the Government of Ethiopia and Tigray regional authorities and urges all parties to build on this positive development, end needless suffering, and help Ethiopia progress towards a resilient future.

Source: US Agency for International Development