Ethiopia
Overview
In 2023 insecurity, inter-communal conflict, and climatic shocks have continued to be Ethiopia's key drivers of humanitarian needs. In addition, soaring prices and reduced purchasing power have created economic barriers for displacement-affected populations to access essential household items or Shelters.
Tigray with 949,371 people still in displacement the humanitarian situation remains dire as the move to resume education, businesses, and other aspects of everyday life does not always align with the pace and scale of humanitarian response challenged by limited resources. Despite the Cluster's efforts to find alternative shelter solutions for thousands of IDPs living in collective centers, especially schools, many have not been relocated. Furthermore, due to the short-term nature of Cash for rent shelter solutions, some IDPs are also facing evictions from rented shelters within host communities. In the past year, more than 1.5M IDPs in Tigray have returned to their places of origin through spontaneous or organized return exercises, but this doesn't mean that humanitarian aid ceased for these returnees. Most still face critical needs for shelter repair kits and NFIs.
Since the conflicts erupted in the Amhara region, even though there have been no reports of conflict-related displacement due to the fluidity of the access situation, the humanitarian responses, particularly for those already displaced or returned communities, have been impacted, drought-related displacements are reported in the North Gondor and Wagehemra zones.
As of December the majority of the flood displaced in Somali region returned, Ethiopia's south and southwest regions (Benishangul Gumz, Gambela, Oromia, Somali, and SNNP) host around 2.3M displaced by an overlapping and recurring crisis of conflict, drought, floods, and landslides. Almost half live in spontaneous sites, a third in host communities, a tenth in planned camps, and the rest in collective centers and dispersed settlements. The shelter conditions are precarious across all these settlements, and NFI needs are critical. In these regions, around half a million IDPs have returned to their places of origin, with 86% having returned more than six months ago.
The ES/NFI Cluster's response priorities aim to align with the population's needs and reduce health and protection risks by providing adequate living conditions. 956,124 people have been targeted with ESNFI kits, 1,380,210 with NFI kits, 973,837 with Emergency Shelter assistance, and 543,526 with repair kits across the country, of which 563K, 650K, 178K, and 158K have been reached, respectively, by the end of December 2023.