UNHCR Regional Update #16: Ethiopia Situation (Tigray Region), 01 – 14 May

Business
June 2, 2021

Key Developments

ETHIOPIA

▪ On 6 May, the UN released $65 million for the humanitarian response in Ethiopia. The amount is made up of $45 million from the UN-managed Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund and $20 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). A total of $40 million from the two pooled funds will be dedicated to the aid operation in Tigray, to fund emergency shelter, clean water and health care facilities. It will also fund work to prevent and respond to cases of gender-based violence, as well as emergency telecommunications to support the humanitarian operations. The remaining $25 million will fund humanitarian operations in the rest of Ethiopia. According to OCHA, more than 16 million people need humanitarian assistance throughout Ethiopia, including 4.5 million in Tigray alone.

▪ As part of the development of the Northern Ethiopia Response Plan following the IASC Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up Activation for the Tigray situation, announced on 28 April 2021, the Protection and CCCM Clusters have developed cluster-specific response plans until the end of 2021 to address both immediate and longer-term needs of IDPs.

SUDAN

▪ On 5 May, UNHCR and the Commission for Refugees (COR) finalized the updated refugee population figures at Hamdayet and Village 8 following a joint UNHCR and COR Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) validation exercise. The new figures have been shared with the inter-agency Refugee Working Group. For the two camps, BIMS registration was completed in Um Rakuba and is ongoing in Tunaydbah and expected to be completed towards the end of May, after which the revised figures for all locations will be available.

▪ More than 7,100 asylum-seekers from the Benishangul Gumuz region of Ethiopia remain at six (6) remote locations at the Blue Nile State border. UNHCR, COR and partners are sensitizing refugees about relocation. As of 11 May, UNHCR and COR had relocated 820 asylum-seekers from Menza to the newly established site at Village 6. The remaining population at the border remain hesitant to be relocated.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees