OCHA Ethiopia seeks additional funding for humanitarian aid

Addis Ababa, December 17, 2022 (FBC) – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Ethiopia announced that it needs additional funding for humanitarian aid.

In an exclusive interview with EPA, OCHA Ethiopia office Head Michel Saad said that the humanitarian response plan of OCHA, which was reviewed recently has shown that the office has received 3.1 billion USD to provide the affected people with the required aid.

“As we have however gained less than 50% fund, we could hardly reach the remaining more than 50% plus people in need of emergency response.”

As to him, they have forced to make very difficult decisions due to the shortage of resources. So, OCHA is in a position to either provide the 50% of the people who are in need with the available support by overlooking the remaining people or fulfill the need of less than half of the population.

“We keep on reminding the international community to provide increased humanitarian assistance so as to address the people in dare need considering that Ethiopia is a big country with a large population and complex situations be it manmade and natural disaster,” he said.

Indicating that the office has been working in collaboration with the Ethiopian government from federal to district level and discussing the way to scale up humanitarian assistance to the people in need, the office head said that the peace accord made between the government of Ethiopia and TPLF will enable it to intensify the assistance for those who never had the access so far.

Asked about the recent security status of the country especially in war torn areas right after the peace deal, Michel Saad said, “If I take the northern part of the country, we have seen access routes, be it by land or by air are increasing, and this by itself is a testimony to the fact that the former severe situation has largely gone down and stabilized in northern parts,” he opined.