Officials said on Thursday, more than 8 million people need food aid in Ethiopia, a 5% rise from 2018, due to increasing violence that has caused mass dislocation as well as the lasting effects of past droughts.
The crisis has encouraged an Ethiopian government appeal for $1.3 billion to provide emergency food and non-food assistance for 8.3 million people.
Ethiopia’s commissioner of national disaster risk management, Mitiku Kassa said, “The impacts of the climate change-induced droughts of 2016 and before have persisted. Moreover, violence in many parts of the country has added to the burden”.
Since last year, United Nations said, around 3 million people remain displaced in the Horn of Africa country mostly of 100 million in the southwest and east, mainly due to a wave of ethnic clashes.
The eruption of violence has outshine reforms started in late 2017 with mass releases of political prisoners that were intended to reduce tensions triggered by anti-government protests in 2015.
He has also presided over major political and economic changes that have included the pardoning of exiled rebel groups and reconciliation with longtime neighboring foe Eritrea.
