ADDIS ABABA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- At least 1 million people, the majority of whom being women and children, are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance following recent inter-communal conflict in Ethiopia, aid agencies revealed on Monday.
International non-governmental organizations in a joint statement issued on Monday stressed that displaced communities in Ethiopia's Gedeo Zone in the Southern region and West Guji Zone in Ethiopia's largest Oromia region "are facing critical gaps in accessing basic services as the majority left their houses with close to nothing."
"They are in need of food, shelter, water and psycho-social support. Aid agencies warn that without a scale up of assistance, the situation of the IDPs is likely to further deteriorate," the statement read.
In their joint statement, eight international aid agencies that include CARE International, Plan International, Save the Children and World Vision also revealed their appeal "for critical and urgent assistance for close to 1 million people" that have fled their homes following inter-communal violence along the border of the two regional states in Ethiopia.
"Given the enormity of the scale and severity of the humanitarian needs, significantly more resourcing is required to ensure we can effectively respond," said Samuel Wood, Humanitarian Director at Save the Children in Ethiopia.
Noting the prolonged drought that severely eroded the resilience of communities in Ethiopia over the past few years as well as the current 7.9 million people who are said to be food insecure, the statement also indicated the various challenges that are affecting in responding to the humanitarian needs of the displaced people.
The aid agencies, which acknowledged the Ethiopian government's ongoing peace and reconciliation efforts, further called on the government "to expedite the resolution of the conflict among the communities in affected areas and facilitate durable solutions to growing internal displacement."
The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) also earlier this month released 15 million U.S. dollars to urgently scale up humanitarian assistance to people affected by escalating inter-communal violence in Ethiopia.
