ReliefWeb

Executive Summary

The northern Ethiopia conflict has affected people living across the region, displacing millions, and leaving behind UXO and other ERW. Since November 2020, the ERW killed 185 people in the Afar and 267 in the Amhara region, mostly children. The purpose of this report is to determine the scope of contamination in the respective regions, and assess the implications of the contamination and risks to those living in the affected woredas.

Based on the geospatial and remote sensing analysis, 122 woredas, 33 in the Afar and 89 in Amhara region are within the 20km radius of the battlefield. 68% of theses woredas are food insecure. An estimated of more than 8.3 million host community members (49% female and 51% male), 205 thousand IDPs, and 1.5 million returnees are living within the 20km buffer distance.

In addition to this, the ERW are threatening access to basic services, including education, agriculture, road, water, and health services. 37% of the water structures,

2.2 million hectares of crop land, and 19,000km of road are found within the buffer distance of the battlefield.
School representatives in the Amhara region have reported the presence UXO and explosion incidents that have resulted in the injury and death of students. This creates fear among students and affects the teaching learning process. Moreover, the UXO and other ERW are seen to be collected and sold to metal factory as a raw material and to individuals, for example to be used as a domestic coffee grinder.
As of July 2022, UNMAS Ethiopia has conducted 195 sessions of EORE TOTs in the Afar and Amhara regions, training 28,200 people, of whom 60% are women.