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Highlight
- From January to June 2020, children and women in Ethiopia have been disproportionately affected by seasonal climate shocks, disease outbreaks, locust plague and conflict displacement. Community transmission of COVID-19 has brought further complexity to the humanitarian response and increased the potential number of people in need of humanitarian assistance.
- 227,613 displaced and hard-to-reach people in Afar and Somali have received medical consultations through mobile health teams. Similarly, 659,821 people have received chemicals for water treatment and 436,616 have gained access to a sufficient amount of potable water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene through durable and long-lasting investments in infrastructure. In addition, 36,482 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returned internally displaced persons (21,320 women and 15,162 men) have received key messages to mitigate gender-based violence (GBV).
- The humanitarian response is challenged by a dynamic security environment, as well as the spread of COVID-19. By mid-year, Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) has a financing gap of 76%.
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Overview of the humanitarian situation and needs
An estimated 4.87 million children are in need of humanitarian assistance in 2020. Humanitarian needs in Ethiopia are complex and have been exacerbated by the number of prolonged displacement caused by droughts, floods and conflicts in previous years, as well as by outbreaks of recurring diseases such as cholera, measles and polio, all of which have exhausted communities, government resources and fragile services, including the health system. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, these needs have been exacerbated and essential health services have been even more overwhelmed. On April 8, the Government of Ethiopia declared a State of Emergency (SOE) for five months, to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its impacts.
As of June 29, 5,846 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 103 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began on March 13, 2020 (see Appendix C on page 13 for a snapshot of the COVID-19 situation and the results obtained at the end of June). In addition, there have been more than 30,000 returned migrants since April alone.
Since January, a total of 5,662 cholera cases (42 confirmed) have been reported, including 73 related deaths. Regarding the measles outbreak, a total of 22,000 cases and 90 deaths were reported between January and the last week of May 2020. According to data from the Ethiopian Institute of Public Health (EPHI), the proportion of children affected by measles outbreaks in 2018 and 2019 was 31 percent and 40 percent, respectively. However, this has increased to 47 percent in the first four months of 2020. Due to recommended measures of physical distancing and concerns of an increased risk of spread of COVID-19 transmission between communities, the implementation of a Mass vaccination campaign was temporarily postponed. This has led to the accumulation of a large cohort of susceptible children and an increased risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. With the promotion of UNICEF and its partners, the national measles vaccination campaign was finally carried out as of June 30, with the application of COVID-19 protection measures that include the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). ), hand sanitizers and physical distancing. The campaign was very successful, reaching more than 95 percent of its goal.
In addition to disease outbreaks, the unstable security situation due to inter-community violence in areas such as Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, Somali and SNNP has hampered emergency assessments of conflict displacement, as well as the implementation of conflict-related activities. necessary humanitarian response. Consequently, Round 22 of the IOM DTM reported that there were around 1,820,811 internally displaced persons as of July 1. Ethiopia’s humanitarian situation further deteriorated between April and June, as a result of the desert locust infestation and ongoing floods. Since January, a total of 180 woredas In seven regions it had been affected by the invasion of locusts, mainly in the eastern and southern parts of the country. This is likely to continue well into 2021 when the rainy season ends in September. In May alone, 470,000 people were affected by excessive rains leading to flooding, which further displaced 300,000 people with loss of life and livelihoods in the Somali, Oromia, Afar, SNNP regions, as well as in Dire Dawa and Harari.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
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