ADDIS ABABA: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has said that the growing food prices is affecting household’s purchasing power as it exacerbates food assistance needs in the eastern part of Ethiopia.
USAID, in its latest periodic Complex Emergency Fact Sheet for Ethiopia, stressed that “high food prices constrain household purchasing power, exacerbate food assistance needs in much of eastern Ethiopia.”
USAID’s Complex Emergency Fact Sheet also disclosed that since the Ethiopian government commenced an initiative to return Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their original areas of residence in early May, “some IDPs have again relocated to new or previous areas of displacement due to destroyed housing, disrupted livelihoods, limited humanitarian assistance, and ongoing conflict-related risks in their original locations, relief actors report.”
“As of July, approximately 1.6 million people remained displaced across Ethiopia, a reduction of nearly 600,000 IDPs since May,” the fact sheet said, quoting the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).
It also emphasized that the U.S. government “remains the largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, providing nearly 496 million USD in 2019 fiscal year support for relief efforts in the country.”
As of late September, international donors had contributed more than 617 million USD toward the humanitarian response in 2019, while the Ethiopian government had contributed nearly 72 million USD.