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Ethiopia Humanitarian Bulletin Issue Issue #9 | 4–17 May 2020

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Ethiopia
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OCHA
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HIGHLIGHTS

• The spread of COVID-19 is still steadily increasing with the country registering 317 cases as of 17 May 2020. The daily report of confirmed cases has spiked since the first week of May, half of it associated with travel, of which a small percentage issued form quarantine centers for migrant returnees.

• The influx of returning/deported migrants from neighboring countries and the Middle East continues to put increasing pressure on the Government surveillance and management capacity, especially at border crossing points.

• The National Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) conducted an assessment of quarantine centers in four sites of Addis Ababa to determine the structural adequacy, functionality and service capacity in the sites. The report forwarded several recommendations for improvement.

• The Ministry of Peace is currently leading an assessment team to quarantine centers, points of entry and isolation centers in the regions to assess their functionality and challenges in the overall COVID-19 response.

• Flooding due to seasonal rains continues to affect hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods in Somali, Afar, SNNP, and Oromia regions as well as Dire Dawa City Council. Overall, the country counts at least 470,000 affected people and 300,000 displaced as of 16 May 2020.

• The number of affected and displaced has drastically increased since the National Flood Taskforce released its first Flood Alert in the first week of May reporting 219,698 people affected and 107,267 displaced. More specifically, flood impacts were reported in Liben (Dolo Ado and Bokolmanyo), West Guji (Gelanna and Bule Hora),
Borena (Moyale), Guji (Liben), and Bale (Ginir, Gololcha and Gasera) zones last week.

• The Government and humanitarian partners are currently addressing the food and non-food needs of affected/displaced population, albeit with limitation.

• Given the rapid increase in the scale and severity of flood incidents across the country, the National Flood Taskforce agreed to develop an Emergency Flood Preparedness and Response Plan for the remainder of the belg/spring season. The document is expected to be released early this week.

Some 60,000 IDPs in Awi zone (Amhara region) are targeted by the regional authrotiries to be returned to Metekel zone, in Benishangul Gumuz region. The IDPs had fled inter-communal conflict and have been residing in Awi zone since 2019

• The Amhara region authorities reported that the organized return is being conducted in consultation with their counterpart in Benishangul Gumuz region as well as in consultation with IDP representatives.

• Discussions with IDPs revealed that even though they are eager to return to their homestead, they said that assistance being providing in areas of return is inadequate.

• Operational partners in Ethiopia are adapting their response to immediate lifesaving needs posed by natural and man-made disasters in the context of COVID-19 restrictions, and the collective responsibility to respond to and prevent further spread of the virus.

• Physical distancing, handwashing and other COVID-19 prevention measures are applied through all programs/activities at country office and field level. Physical distancing is being applied during distribution of relief supplies to IDPs and other beneficiaries. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and sanitation materials are provided to frontline workers, as well as to quarantine centers and members of communities.

• The 2020 Humanitarian Response Plan is 17 per cent funded, including 30 per cent for the food sector and 8.7 per cent for the non-food sector. A revision of the sector requirements is currently being finalized to reflect additional needs due to COVID-19 pandemic, flooding and desert locust infestation amongst others.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.