The UN estimates that $3.24 billion will be required this year alone, including aid for about four million internally displaced persons, but less than 5% of that amount has been allocated to the plan.
The UN has issued a call for commitments to handle Ethiopia’s “critical” humanitarian situation, wherein over 21 million people are in need of assistance and a severe food crisis is getting worse.
The goal of a donor meeting being held on Tuesday at the UN European headquarters is to get substantial commitments toward the $1 billion that is urgently required to fund relief efforts for the next three months alone.
Prior to the meeting, UN humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia Ramiz Alakbarov stated, “We need to mobilize.” “The people of Ethiopia need our solidarity and our support.”
Ethiopians are dealing with severe food and hunger crises, economic and climatic shocks, and rumbling internal conflicts.
Under 5% of plans were funded.
According to the UN, $3.24 billion is required just this year to support about four million internally displaced persons. However, less than 5% of that plan has been funded thus far.
“There is still a huge gap… The Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission’s commissioner, Shiferaw Teklemariam, warned reporters in Geneva that “we really have to act before it is too late.”
The commissioner also stated that the Ethiopian government has allocated $250 million for food assistance in the upcoming months.
Through the end of June, the UN said, an initial $1 billion would be required for the urgent aid response.
Additionally, it is necessary to get ready for the lean season, which runs from July to September and is anticipated to cause severe food insecurity for about 11 million people.
“Extremely delicate”
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA stated, “The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia is critical—but there is a window to act right now to break the downward spiral.”
Co-hosted by the British and Ethiopian governments, the event takes place one day after a $2.1 billion fundraising conference for Sudan took place in Paris.
Numerous nations declare donations
The state of affairs, according to British Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell, is “extremely worrying”.
He mentioned the “increasingly worrying famine conditions” , yet emphasized “the international community working very closely with the government of Ethiopia was in a position to head it off” .
He claimed that Britain would provide an extra $125 million (£100 million), making the initiative “our biggest programme anywhere in the world” with a total annual financing of $246 million (£198 million).
The United States, which is Ethiopia’s biggest provider of humanitarian relief, announced during the ceremony on Tuesday that it would contribute an additional $154 million, increasing its total aid contribution to the nation this fiscal year to $243 million.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
