Effort is Underway to Provide Humanitarian Assistance to Drought Affected Regions

Efforts are underway to to ensure adequate supplies of food and non-food items in drought affected regions, Mitiku Kassa, Commissioner for the National Disaster Risk Management said.

Speaking to  ENA, Mitiku  said the national disaster risk management is already engaged in various activities to supply food and non-food items to the affected regions.

According to him, nine of the eleven zones of Somali Regional states are already affected by the drought.

He mentioned Borena, Guji and Harerge areas of Oromia Regional State are  also affected by the drought.

In the Southern Nations, and Peoples State,  Omo zone, Konso, Wolaita and Goffa areas are also affected by  the drought, he added.

According to him,  more than six million people are affected in the drought, resulted from the La Niña effect.

The commissioner added:‘the government of Ethiopia has established a number of ways to boost effective and efficient delivery of humanitarian assistance.’’

He said that the provision of food, water, nutrition, and livelihood protection programs, including water-trucking, feed supply are well underway.

However, the response mechanisms including humanitarian assistance and coordinated humanitarian supplies  are not yet as needed, he said.

To this end, committees at both national and regional levels, have been established, the Commissioner said.

 The dryness resulted from the drought might persist for the next two months until the rainy season comes in the region, he added.

Mitiku call on pertinent local bodies, and development partners and citizens at large to extend  support to the effort of the government,  relevant international organizations and others to save lives and protect  likelihoods of those in need.