Drought in Ethiopia Leaves Millions Needing Urgent Aid, UN Says

(Bloomberg) --

Severe drought has led to millions of people needing humanitarian assistance across four regions in Ethiopia, according to the United Nations.

Three failed rainy seasons have devastated livestock and crops in provinces including Afar and Oromia in the Horn of Africa nation, and about 6.8 million people will need emergency aid by the middle of the year, Unicef said in an emailed statement. Mass displacement of people is already underway, it said.

“The impact of the drought is devastating,” said Gianfranco Rotigliano, the agency's Ethiopia representative. The most severely impacted regions are the lowland areas of southern and eastern Oromia and Somali regions, where an estimated 225,000 malnourished children and more than 100,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women require urgent support. 

The need for aid adds to the plight of Ethiopians in war-torn Tigray, where the World Food Programme says almost 40% of the 6 million people in the northern region are facing extreme food shortages. Areas of Kenya and Somalia are also experiencing drought.

The Ethiopian government is buying 300,000 metric tons of wheat to deal with the fallout from the poor rains, said Mitiku Kassa, commissioner for Ethiopia's National Disaster Risk Management Commission. 

The UN said in a report last year that droughts had from 1998 to 2017 affected at least 1.5 billion people and caused $124 billion in economic losses globally.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.