Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed traveled to the Gedeo zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s regional state to listen to the grievances of the displaced people in Gedeb woreda and meet with representatives of the community.
The Prime Minister also traveled to the area to assess the state of the displaced people who are in temporary shelters.
The government, through the coordination of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission, upon the request of zonal and regional administrators earlier this week, has been transporting humanitarian supplies to the area as of March 11th.
The government also will continue its efforts to ensure sustainable reinstatement of the displaced people.
According to United Nations statistics, the majority of Ethiopia’s displaced and persons in need are in Oromia. The SNNP region comes third after the Somali regional state in second position.
The northern Tigray region donated on Saturday five million birrs to help the displacement crisis in the region. Another plank of assistance was the imminent dispatch of a team of medical professionals to the area.
Ethiopians also launched a public funding move to help thousands of Gedeo IDPs displaced as a result of Gedeo-Guji crisis. The Go Fund Me campaign has raked close to $930,000 out of a $1.2m goal as at midday March 17.
The United Nations office in the country recently reported that over eight million people needed food aid, a 5 percent rise from last year, due to a surge in violence that has triggered mass displacement as well as the lingering effects of past droughts.
The crisis has prompted an Ethiopian government appeal for $1.3 billion to provide emergency food and non-food assistance for 8.3 million people.
“The impacts of the climate change-induced droughts of 2016 and before have persisted. Moreover, violence in many parts of the country have added to the burden,” said Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia’s commissioner of national disaster risk management.
