The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes USD 60 million from the United Arab Emirates to support their humanitarian response in Ethiopia. The funding will provide emergency food and nutrition assistance in response to an alarming rise in food insecurity, particularly in the north of the country where 19 months of war has almost exhausted people’s coping mechanisms and displaced hundreds of thousands from their homes. More than 13 million people require humanitarian food assistance in conflict-affected Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions.
This comes against the backdrop of the global food crisis where rising costs linked to the war in Ukraine are compounding woes. The UAE funds, delivered through the Famine Relief Fund, will allow WFP to continue to address the urgent food needs of 1.6 million people in the conflict-affected north of Ethiopia through food distributions in Tigray, Afar and Amhara. Conditions in Ethiopia have deteriorated due to the combination of conflict, climate shocks and the economic impacts of COVID-19 and the recent crisis in Ukraine. Inflation is at its highest peak in ten years – and the population in need of food assistance has doubled over the past 12 months – to around 20.4 million people.