Food assistance about to run out due to intense fighting in Ethiopia
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The World Food Programme warns that conflict-torn Ethiopia will be running out of assistance soon.
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An Ethiopian woman who fled the Tigray war holds her child under a WFP banner in Hamdayet village on the Sudan-Ethiopia border, December 15, 2020. (Reuters)
On Friday, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said that provided nutrition supplies to Ethiopia, torn by conflict in the north, will run out next week. The stocks have not been replenished since mid-December over the escalating war which struck the country.
"The escalation of conflict across northern Ethiopia means that no WFP convoy has reached Mekelle since mid-December. Stocks of nutritionally fortified food for the treatment of malnourished children and women are now exhausted, and the last of WFP’s cereals, pulses and oil will be distributed next week," the agency said in a statement.
No food, no fuel, no funding.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) January 14, 2022
WFP's life-saving food assistance operations in northern #Ethiopia are about to grind to a halt. The escalation of conflict means that no WFP convoy has reached Mekelle since mid-December.
Michael Dunford, the regional director for Eastern Africa at the WFP, urged the conflict parties to secure safe humanitarian corridors so that supplies can be adequate and reach on time.
Only around 20% of those who need humanitarian assistance received it in the latest distribution from the WFP, and the program is bound to a humanitarian disaster.
“WFP also warns it will likely run out of food and nutrition supplies for millions of people across all of Ethiopia from next month due to an unprecedented lack of funding," the organization said, continuing to inform that $337 million are needed to ameliorate the emergency situation in northern Ethiopia.
The year-long conflict has resulted in 9.4 million Ethiopians needing nutrition assistance. The assistance is at its lowest level due to the attacks, WFP said.
Read more: Ethiopia; a state of insecurity.
Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an ethnic Tigrayan, described the situation in the Tigray region as "hell", and condemned Ethiopian authorities for blocking access for WHO humanitarian aid.
Six million need aid in drought-hit parts of Ethiopia
More than six million people in drought-stricken parts of eastern and southern Ethiopia would require "life-saving" help this year, according to a new report from the UN's emergency response agency.
The drought is exacerbating Ethiopia's humanitarian catastrophe, which has already been aggravated by the conflict in the north of the nation between government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Army (TPLF).
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement posted online last week that the drought in Somalia and East and South Oromia is having a "devastating impact on the lives and livelihood of pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities living in the area after the third consecutive failed rainy season."
The statement added that more than 6.4 million people in the affected areas will need food help this year, and that while the Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners were attempting to address the situation, "the response is not commensurate with the urgent need."
