ADDIS ABABA, July 26, (Xinhua/GNA) — Millions of people across Ethiopia, continue to face dire humanitarian emergencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.
The ICRC, in its Ethiopia periodic bulletin issued Tuesday, said since fighting ended in the conflict in northern Ethiopia, significant progress has been made on the humanitarian front.
Despite the progress, the ICRC said millions of people across the country, continue to face dire humanitarian emergencies. “More than ever, we feel the need to stay close to those communities which most need our support,” it said.
It said the nutritional situation of pregnant and nursing mothers and children under the age of five, has become particularly worrying in the Tigray region, and has required urgent action to save lives.
According to the ICRC, among the high concern is the situation of the population in certain parts of Amhara, Afar and Tigray, which are littered with unexploded remnants of war — a risk for the population, particularly children, but also for farmers and the tens of thousands of displaced people returning to their homes in former battlefields.
The ICRC said its nutrition program, which supports thousands of malnourished women and children, many of whom live in hard-to-reach places, has already seen life-saving outcomes.
ICRC’s statement came against the backdrop of an estimate by the 2023 Ethiopian Humanitarian Response Plan, that indicated some 4.5 million internally displaced persons (IDP) require humanitarian assistance across the country this year.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, since the beginning of the year, there have been additional displacements, notably due to drought, floods, and insecurity, but also tens of thousands of IDP returns have been facilitated to their places of origin.
GNA