ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian government has called on the international community to step up humanitarian support as the East African country encountered natural and man-made disasters.
The urgent appeal was made by Ethiopia's National Risk Management Commission (NRMC) Commissioner Mitiku Kassa when he appealed for strong humanitarian support from the international community as Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa are frequently affected by La Nina, El Nino and various other disasters.
More than 20 million Ethiopians affected by man-made and natural calamities have been receiving humanitarian aid across the East African country, state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) quoted Kassa as saying Thursday.
The Ethiopian government covers some 60 percent of the total relief assistance, while the remaining is being met by donor organizations, according to Kassa.
"There is a huge gap that needs to be filled by the international community. The government is working strongly with partners to thoroughly discuss gaps and bring more resources in order to fill the gap," Kassa said.
According to the NRMC commissioner, the Ethiopian government has been forced to reduce the ration size from 50 kg to 20 kg in some regional states due to mounting demand.
"That has negative implications from the beneficiary side," he said, emphasizing that there is a huge gap to be filled by the international community and the Ethiopian government is working strongly with partners to bring in more resources to meet the need.
Meanwhile, Kassa said the East African country needs to diversify its existing resource mobilization strategy to speed up humanitarian response.
"We need to diversify the resource mobilization strategy. We need to look for non-traditional donors as well as try to mobilize more resources from the domestic level, from private sectors, and the community; because we have a rich culture in mobilizing resources to address the needy ones whenever they are man-made or natural disasters in our country," Kassa was quoted as saying.
The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) last week said drought conditions across Ethiopia have left more than 7.2 million pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in four regions of Ethiopia in need of food aid.
In addition to the ongoing drought, the UNOCHA said more than 9 million people are in need of food assistance in conflict-affected northern Ethiopia and food assistance will be required throughout 2022 across northern Ethiopia. ■
