ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations migration agency on Wednesday commended the Ethiopian government-led conflict resolution moves for restoring "relative peace" in southern parts of Ethiopia that have recently suffered from inter-communal conflicts that displaced hundreds of thousands.
"Since April 2019, conflict resolution moves led by the government have restored relative peace in parts of Ethiopia that have suffered unrest and enabled some internally displaced persons (IDPs) to return to their place of origin," said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a statement issued late on Wednesday.
The UN migration agency, which commended the Ethiopian government-led initiatives towards restoring the dire humanitarian condition in the southern parts of the East African country, however, stressed that "fulfilling basic needs remains a major challenge."
"This summer IOM has stepped up the distribution of non-food items to thousands of returnees in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) and Oromia regions following conflicts in Gedeo/Guji areas of Ethiopia that displaced 700,000 persons during 2018," the statement read.
The latest of the historically recurring clashes between communities in the Gedeo and West Guji zones along the borders of the SNNP and Oromia regional states begun in March 2018.
IOM, noting an increase in its support to the Gedeo and Guji Zones, also said that the provision of non-food items is proving "very vital for the reintegration of returnee families."
"These families had no means to supply themselves with the necessary kits and the lack of these basic kits has made return very difficult," an IOM statement quoted John Bang, an IOM staffer in charge of Shelter and NFI distribution, as saying.
In 2019 alone IOM has provided 58,364 non-food kits accompanied by solar lanterns and cooking stoves, shelter repair kits for 4,674 households, along with housing, land and property assistance, with 36,396 households benefitting from water, sanitation and hygiene support, it was noted.
It, however, stressed that "there is still a major funding gap to address the needs of all the vulnerable returnees."
