US Provides $313m to Support Conflict-Affected People in N. Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA – The United States on Thursday said it is providing nearly $313 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the conflict in northern Ethiopia.

“The new funding announced today will support emergency food and nutrition assistance to meet the needs of nearly 7 million people,” said the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The fund will also help strengthen community health facilities and mobile health teams to combat infectious diseases; provide protection services, such as support for survivors of gender-based violence, the US aid agency.

It will also bolster logistics support to deliver aid to people in remote and hard-to-reach areas.

“The United States remains committed to helping the Ethiopian people,” claimed the USAID, adding its partners are scaling up assistance to affected people in Afar and Amhara regions where humanitarian workers were able to reach over four million people with food since January.

With two initial convoys since early April, aid agencies have also transported food and nutrition supplies to people in of support in Tigray.

This development builds on expanded air operations by which humanitarian partners have delivered more than 600 metric tons of medical, nutrition, and shelter supplies since December.

“To best utilize new humanitarian funding, authorities must work in collaboration with humanitarian organizations to facilitate humanitarian access for aid trucks to enter Tigray, as well as to reach people in need in Afar and Amhara,” the US aid agency said.