UNHCR needs $49.7M to deal with refugees, IDPs in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |  XINHUA |  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday said it needs 49.7 million U.S. dollars to meet the needs of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia.

A monthly fact sheet published by UNHCR said it needs the funding to meet the basic nutritional needs, as well as the education, health and accommodation needs of refugees and IDPs in Ethiopia.

The UNHCR appeal for Ethiopia covers the emergency situation in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray regional state from January to June 2021.

The UNHCR had registered 96,223 Eritrean refugees in the Tigray region, sheltered mainly in four camps in the region, before the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region last November.

Ethiopia is the third-largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, sheltering more than 800,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.

Fighting that erupted in early November last year in Ethiopia’s Tigray between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which used to rule the regional state, and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces has left thousands of people killed and caused immense losses in the region.

According to Ethiopian government figures, the conflict in Tigray has displaced around 2.2 million people, while 4.5 million people are in need of emergency aid.

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XINHUA