IOM Says USD 27 Million Needed For Shelter Help In Ethiopia
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has said the emergency fund is to cover urgent needs of shelter and other aid supplies for internally displaced persons in Tigray.
The Ethiopia Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Item (ES/NFI) headed by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday, Aug. 17, that $27 million is urgently needed to continue providing emergency shelter and other assistance for those internally displaced in Tigray.
“A total of 629,000 [people] have been reached with lifesaving emergency shelter and non-food items that include blankets and cooking utensils, but the assistance has not been extended to tangible items such as sheltering vast numbers of displaced people,” said Jeffrey Labovitz, IOM Director for the Department of Operations and Emergencies.
According to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) Emergency Site Assessment Report 7, released last week, an estimate of five million people have been affected by the humanitarian crisis caused by conflict nine months ago, and more than 2.1 million people are internally displaced in the region.
Some have fled Ethiopia and sought refuge in neighbouring Sudan, Labovitz said, adding that many are sheltered in 116 sites for internally displaced persons (IDP) in the region.
For the past 10 years, IOM has been leading the ES/NFI group in Ethiopia, a group of 33 national and international NGOs and two UN agencies operating in 10 regions and 59 zones, which has recently established two sub-groups working towards providing shelter and non-food item assistance in Tigray.
According to Labovitz, schools are being turned into IDP camps to shelter more displaced persons to improve assistance.
In July, IOM appealed for USD 63.4 million to help those affected by the crisis in Northern Ethiopia, of which USD 50.1 million is for the provision of emergency shelter and non-food items to about 2 million IDPs in 2021. Only USD 28.7 million has been received so far.
“The ES/NFI partners urgently require USD 27 million for ES/NFI assistance to 1.6 million people living in health threatening conditions,” Labovitz disclosed.
“The ES/NFI partners are working with multiple approaches given the complex and often urban environments where many displaced people find themselves. The strategy is for a response that assists both newly displaced people and stretched host communities. It also prepares for those people who may be displaced for the long term.”
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