Humanitarian situation worsens in Ethiopia's Amhara, Afar regions

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate across Ethiopia's Amhara and Afar regions due to the ongoing regional and ethnic conflicts, flash floods, and food insecurity, with tens of thousands of displaced people in urgent need of assistance.

The conflicts in the two regions are a spillover of the Tigray conflict that broke out nine months ago between the Tigray People's Liberation Front and the Ethiopian army, leaving thousands displaced and hundreds at the verge of starvation.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the conflicts have displaced 100,000 people in the Amhara region and 70,000 people in the Afar region. The Afar-Somali ethnic conflicts in the south have also displaced 35,000 people.

In the Amhara region, the UN agency said the conflicts and tensions have made it difficult to access residents close to the Amhara-Tigray regional border and the Amhara-Benishangul Gumuz regional border.

It said intercommunal conflicts in the Central Gondar zone, and in the Awi zone, continue to increase the number of internally displaced persons.

"UN agencies are supporting our partners and government counterparts throughout Amhara, including in health and nutrition and cash programs," the agency said.

"International nongovernmental organization partners are providing water, sanitation and hygiene services in the western Amhara and mobile clinics in North Gondar."

The agency however, said response remains insufficient to meet increasing humanitarian needs, with limited humanitarian presence in the region.

"Immediate resource mobilization is required to meet the urgent needs of affected communities. Emergency shelter, food and nonfood items are the key priorities. Pre-positioning of supplies particularly for health, nutrition, shelter and protection is urgently required," it said.

In the Afar region, the UN agency said communities living in the 10 districts that border the Tigray region 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.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that an additional 500,000 people in Awsi, Kilbati and Fantirisk being displaced if the conflict continues in Tigray.

"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 and nonfood items," the agency said.

According to the UN, an estimated 5.2 million people in the Tigray region, translating to 90 percent of the population, need humanitarian assistance.

Additionally, more than 400,000 people are facing famine while another 1.8 million are on the brink of famine.

"Thirty-three thousand children are severely malnourished and, moreover, the food insecurity crisis will continue to worsen during the impending rainy season, as food supplies are exhausted, and the risk of flooding and waterborne diseases, including cholera, increases," Ramesh Rajasingham, acting under-secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator told the UN Security Council on Friday.

"Considering where we already are, this means that more people will die certainly if we do not reach them with humanitarian assistance."

Rajasingham said aid organizations must be allowed to use the fastest and most effective route to get humanitarian supplies to the people in need.

"We need immediate, unhindered and sustained access from both Komolcha and Semera to Mekelle, and from Gondar to Shire," he said.