UNFPA Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Situation Report – December 2022
SITUATION OVERVIEW
Ethiopia continues to face huge humanitarian challenges, with conflict and displacement, a protracted severe drought, disease outbreaks and the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 as the main drivers of need. More than 26 million people depend on humanitarian assistance, including 20 million people affected by climate shocks in the eastern and southern regions. According to the Global Humanitarian Overview for 2023 that was officially launched on 1 December 2022, more than 26 million people in Ethiopia are estimated to require humanitarian assistance in 2023.
In northern Ethiopia, following the signing of the Peace Agreement on 2 November 2022, humanitarian partners continue to scale-up response and significant improvements have been witnessed in the operational environment and access to people in need. Humanitarian supplies continue to enter Tigray via four corridors through Afar and Amhara regions as well as via the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS). Commercial flights have resumed to Mekelle and Shire by the Ethiopian Airlines. Electricity, telecommunication and banking services are gradually being restored in several locations in the Tigray Region.
In Afar and Amhara regions, despite the scale up of humanitarian assistance, hundreds of thousands of returnees are reported to be living in substandard shelters and with limited assistance. In Oromia Region, the humanitarian access situation remains very challenging.
The humanitarian operations in Guji and West Guji zones are being impacted with ongoing conflict inducing displacements in the region. In Benishangul Gumuz Region, more than 182,000 returnees and 110,000 IDPs are in need of humanitarian assistance.
In eastern and southern Ethiopia, communities continue to suffer the impacts of climate-related shocks, particularly the severe drought affecting the livelihoods of nearly 17 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. The reduced availability of food, water and pasture have triggered internal displacement and deepened food insecurity, exacerbating protection risks. The drought is also causing a health crisis due to increased malnutrition rates and disease outbreaks while access to health services has decreased. To that effect, the cholera outbreak in parts of Oromia and Somali regions is still not contained with communities increasingly becoming exposed to illness. The drought will continue to drive high humanitarian needs in 2023, with a high likelihood of a sixth failed rainy season in March-May 2023. Humanitarian assistance has continued although it is not commensurate with the magnitude of needs across the region.
Source: United Nations Population Fund