UN Secretary-General Martin Griffiths says he has released $ 40m aimed at boosting emergency operations in northern Ethiopia affected by the conflict, and as a response to the drought in the south.
The United Nations has released emergency funding to help provide life-saving assistance and protection to civilians affected by the Ethiopian war.
UN Secretary-General Martin Griffiths said on Monday that he had allocated $ 40m to improve emergency services in the Tigray region and another conflict in northern Ethiopia, as well as a response to the drought in the south of the country. .
“Millions of people in northern Ethiopia are living on the edge of the sword as the humanitarian crisis intensifies,” Griffiths said in a statement.
“Across the country, demand is rising.”
Ethiopia’s annual fighting between rebels from the northern Tigray region and government forces has claimed many lives, displaced more than two million people and left hundreds of thousands in starvation-stricken conditions.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to Tigray last November to overthrow the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which he said had taken place following a series of terrorist attacks.
Abiy promised a quick victory, but at the end of June, the TPLF recaptured a large part of Tigray before increasing its presence in the Amhara and Afar regions.
The TPLF wants an end to what the UN has described as a blockage in Tigray, without any permission to enter the region last month.
Griffiths said $ 25m for the new injection comes from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, while another $ 15m comes from the Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund from Ethiopia.
In Tigray, Amhara and Afar, the money will go to charities that provide security and other life-saving assistance to those affected by the conflict, he said.
“Women, boys and girls continue to struggle with this problem, yet their protected needs remain unmet,” she said.
In drought-stricken areas of southern Somalia and Oromia, additional funding will help aid agencies provide drinking water, including preventing water-borne diseases such as cholera, and protecting livestock.
Despite the new injection, the UN said aid agencies in Ethiopia still had $ 1.3bn in revenue this year, including the $ 350m needed to address the crisis in Tigray alone.
The release of the money comes as countries strive to resolve growing tensions. On Sunday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta met with Abiy in Ethiopia while African Union (AU) envoy Olusegun Obasanjo said he hoped talks could resolve the conflict but warned “such talks would not happen” without stopping the war.
In his remarks, Obasanjo said he “hopes that what they have agreed to do to resolve the dispute can be protected”.
But as the war intensifies in recent weeks, the former President of Nigeria and a special envoy of the AU to the Horn of Africa have warned that “such talks cannot take place in areas where war is rampant”.
“Therefore, I urge all parties to refrain from invading the military. This will provide an opportunity for the negotiations to continue.”
His comments came ahead of a visit to three African countries visited by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who backed Obasanjo’s attempts to intervene and threatened to impose sanctions on the Abiy government and the TPLF only if he stepped up negotiations.
Tigrayan people line up to receive local food supplies at the Mekelle refugee camp, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, May 2021. [File: Ben Curtis/AP Photo]
