Download logo
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC), Martin Griffiths, continues with his mission to Ethiopia.
Over the weekend, the ERC visited a health centre and a school in Hawzen, South Eastern Tigray, and met with women, men, and local authorities. In Firweni, Eastern Tigray, he visited a site for internally displaced persons and heard from affected people, community leaders and humanitarian partners.
Today in Addis Ababa, Mr. Griffiths met with the Minister of Peace, Mrs. Muferiat Kamil and with the Amhara Regional President Mr. Agegnehu Teshager to discuss the humanitarian situation in that region (Amhara), as well as with the African Union Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Amira El Fadil
and Member State representatives to Ethiopia.
The humanitarian situation in the Afar region is deteriorating due to the spillover of the Tigray conflict which has displaced about 70,000 people, according to regional authorities, and the ongoing Afar–Somali ethnic conflict in the south, which has displaced 35,000 people.
In ten districts bordering Tigray, communities are hosting and assisting nearly 50,000 displaced people of Tigrayan and Afari origin with minimal humanitarian assistance due to a lack of resources and limited access.
An additional 500,000 people in areas in Afar bordering Tigray (Awsi, Kilbati, and Fanti) risk being displaced if the conflict continues in Tigray.
Afar authorities have distributed food and non-food items to some of the recently displaced people. Humanitarian partners will provide health, protection, and emergency food, water, hygiene and sanitation assistance to 70,000 displaced people. In collaboration with the Afar Regional Health Bureau and humanitarian partners, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has deployed four mobile health and nutrition teams to provide services.
Financial resources are required to meet the urgent needs of affected communities and prepare for further increases in the number of displaced people. It is urgent to pre-position supplies, particularly health, nutrition, shelter, non-food items.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
