Ministry says 3.7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance
Monday, 13 August 2012 17:13

A total of 3.7 million people are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance from August-December 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture has said.

While disclosing humanitarian assistance needed on Monday, State Minister Mitiku Kassa said 41 per cent of those in need of assistance are in Somali State. The remaining 27 per cent in Oromia, 10 per cent in Tigray, 7.7 per cent in Amhara and 8.1 per cent are found in South Ethiopia Peoples' States, he said.

Mitiku said there is a need to provide a total of around 314,000 MT of food in order to fill the gap.

Considering a carryover food amounting to around 120,000 MT, the net requirement of relief food is 194,000MT valued at approximately $149 million.

The number of aid recipients was 3.2 million during the previous six months. The number has increased to 3.7 million due to delay of “belg” rains (mid-February to May) in belg-growing areas of the country and also the recurrent drought in pastoral areas, Mitiku said.

WFP Humanitarian Coordinator for Ethiopia, Abdou Dieng for his part said donor organizations would work in collaboration with the government to address food shortage in the reported period.