United Nations humanitarian chief starts two-day mission to Ethiopia

(Addis Ababa, 8 July 2011): The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, started a two-day mission to Ethiopia today, during which she will review the humanitarian situation and response to the drought that has gripped Ethiopia along with other countries in the Horn of Africa.

With 3.2 million Ethiopians in urgent need of assistance to cope with the impact of the drought in the lowlands and poor rains in parts of the central highlands, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos started her visit by meeting with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, as well as with the humanitarian country team and humanitarian donors to Ethiopia.

“The Deputy Prime Minister and I had a frank discussion about the need for credibility in identifying the scope of humanitarian requirements in Ethiopia. We also discussed the need for an agreed framework, bearing in mind security concerns in some parts of the country, to help humanitarian actors to reach those in need in a timely and effective manner,” said Ms. Amos, following her meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister.

“While Ethiopia is on the fast track for development, a sizeable proportion of the population remains vulnerable to natural hazards such as drought and require assistance in the face of major crises such as the one we now see unfolding across the Horn.”

“We urgently need to scale up our response in Ethiopia, as in Kenya, Somalia and other countries, to minimize the loss of human life and livestock, which are the chief asset of pastoralist households,” she concluded.

Across the Horn of Africa, more than 10 million people have been affected by the drought and require food assistance. Excess livestock mortality of 15 to 30 per cent has been reported in pastoralist areas, with mortality as high as 40 to 60 per cent in localized areas, such as the Borena region of southern Ethiopia, especially among cattle and sheep.

The Government of Ethiopia is expected to present a revised Humanitarian Requirements Document to donors in the coming days, which will identify the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the second half of 2011. For the first half of the year, the $234.4 million raised for humanitarian programmes was not enough to prevent serious shortages of food assistance because of an increase of those in need. Rising malnutrition has also been reported in recent months, although late rains in May 2011 provided some relief from the acute water shortages that had previously left more than 2 million people dependent on water trucking.
Additionally, action is needed to control and contain ongoing outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as measles and acute watery diarrhoea.

Tomorrow, Ms. Amos is scheduled to visit drought-affected areas of the Somali Region – where 1.3 million people – nearly one third of the region’s population – require food and non-food assistance due to the drought.