The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) on Monday said it is facing a funding shortfall to meet humanitarian needs in Ethiopia.
“Only 28.9 percent of 1.65 billion U.S. dollars needed to meet humanitarian needs in Ethiopia in 2020 has been received,” the UNOCHA said in a report.
UNOCHA appealed to humanitarian partners to cover the rest 1.17 billion U.S. dollars needed to comprehensively meet humanitarian needs in Ethiopia in 2020.
In June, the Ethiopian government and humanitarian partners including the UN released a revised 2020 Humanitarian needs appeal document.
The joint Ethiopia government-humanitarian partners document identified 16.5 million people who need emergency food and non-food assistance at a cost of 1.65 billion U.S. dollars.
Ethiopia is facing a huge humanitarian crisis caused by a host of factors including persistent food insecurity, displacement, disease outbreaks, climate change and the rapidly increasing cases of COVID-19.
In addition, the east African country is facing the worst desert locust invasion in decades with the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians put in jeopardy.
