Emergency Relief Coordinator releases $8.5 million for more than 200,000 people in northern Ethiopia

Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher released $8.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) for northern Ethiopia, the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said at its daily press briefing. Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that Mr. Fletcher made the release the day before the briefing. The money is meant to address the urgent needs of more than 200,000 people across the northern regions.

According to Mr. Haq, the funding will support water, sanitation and hygiene, shelter, health and nutrition services. The briefing did not say how the money will be split among those sectors or among the regions. It did not name the agencies that will spend it.

Mr. Haq said humanitarian partners report that access continues to improve, particularly in the Tigray region. He said flights resumed the day before the briefing, and that more roads are now considered safe for humanitarian movements. The briefing did not say which flights resumed or who operates them.

Since the last update, additional food and medical supplies were delivered to the regions of Afar, Amhara and Tigray, Mr. Haq said. They include 80 trucks carrying more than 315 metric tons of food commodities and more than 45 metric tons of medical supplies to support 19 health facilities across Tigray.

Security remains a problem. Mr. Haq said humanitarian colleagues describe the situation as volatile in parts of Afar, Amhara and Tigray. They remain concerned by ongoing fighting, artillery shelling, incidents of looting and disruptions to health services. The briefing did not say who is fighting or where the shelling has taken place.

Humanitarian colleagues also report growing concern that food insecurity will worsen across the northern regions. Mr. Haq gave the causes as poor harvests, displacement and disrupted livelihoods. These, he said, put pressure on vulnerable households, many of which have exhausted their coping capacities. The briefing gave no figure for how many people are food insecure or displaced.

The figure of more than 200,000 people comes from the Spokesperson's office. This paper cannot check it. Nor can it say how the $8.5 million compares with the full need in northern Ethiopia. The briefing did not state that need, and it did not say whether other funding has been sought or received.

The United Nations is a party to this story. The Emergency Relief Coordinator is a UN official who made the release, and the account comes from the UN's own spokesperson's office.