ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, said on Tuesday that 958,175 people are internally displaced following an inter-communal crisis in Ethiopia's Gedeo and West Guji zones.
According to the UN migration agency's latest report, 359,113 people are sheltering in collective sites while the remainder are living with local communities, in rented accommodation or with relatives, though they also visit the collective sites to get humanitarian assistance.
The latest of the historically recurring clashes between communities in the Gedeo and West Guji zones, along the borders of the Southern region and the Oromia region, begun in March 2018.
As the fighting intensified in June, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes with little more than the clothes they were wearing, according to the IOM.
In Gedeo zone, where the majority of the displaced people are living, there are at least 276,939 people in 134 collective sites, which range from schools to government buildings and disused or unfinished buildings.
"In seven of the sites, more than half of the residents are living outside or in open spaces. As Ethiopia is experiencing its cold and rainy season, providing adequate shelter to these displaced communities is a priority for IOM," the report said.
Many of the sites in Gedeo are in remote areas, "making humanitarian aid delivery extremely difficult," and four the sites are completely inaccessible, making the assistance endeavors "near impossible," according to the report.
Displaced people began arriving in both zones in March and were still arriving in July.
The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) last month released 15 million U.S. dollars to urgently scale up humanitarian assistance to people affected by escalating inter-communal violence in Ethiopia.
