Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA, May 29 (EI) — The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Friday said that it’s currently assisting more than 3 million vulnerable Ethiopians as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the Horn of Africa country’s humanitarian situation.
The WFP, in its latest humanitarian situation update for Ethiopia, disclosed that it is currently assisting more than 3 million people across the East African country, as the WFP adapted its delivery mechanisms to the COVID-19 context in order to maintain lifesaving food assistance to the most food insecure and nutritionally vulnerable groups.
According to the WFP, its humanitarian relief support in Ethiopia includes food and cash transfers for drought and flood-affected people, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees, as well as treatment of malnourished children and women.
The WFP, which is also responding to other emergencies in the East African country such as flooding and Desert Locusts, also stressed that it’s presently providing support to the Ethiopian government, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) as well as other humanitarian partners through the provision of logistical and technical capacity in support of the COVID-19 humanitarian response.
According to figures from the WFP, some 3.2 million vulnerable Ethiopians have benefited from WFP’s humanitarian relief support during the course of April 2020.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in Ethiopia and beyond, the WFP also said it has adapted its operations to ensure continuity of life-saving food assistance for acutely food insecure drought affected, and flood affected people, and internally displaced persons; as well as the treatment of acute malnutrition activities targeting malnourished pregnant and lactating women, and children aged 6-59 months.
The WFP’s new assistance schemes in Ethiopia also includes supply chain support for the Humanitarian Air Hub and Logistics Cluster, support to scale-up the urban productive safety net project reaching some 17,500 people with cash assistance from July; as well as food assistance for Ethiopian returnees and deportees in quarantine at border areas, it was noted.
The Ethiopian Ministry of Health confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13. Since then, the Ethiopian government has instituted a wide range of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Amid the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country, the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives had in April announced a five-month state of emergency to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
