By Ahsan Ahsan
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Thursday said the agency is facing a critical funding gap to meet the COVID-19 related needs of refugees in Ethiopia. This is contained in a monthly fact sheet published by UNHCR in Addis Ababa according to the Xinhua/NAN Report.
The sheet said it had only received 3.4 million dollars out of 34.7 million dollars required to meet the basic health, medical supplies, general COVID-19 preventive and response needs of refugees in Ethiopia.
“The funding shortfall coupled with delayed delivery of international procurement orders for Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), medicines and medical supplies are among the key challenges hampering the response efforts,” said the UNHCR monthly fact sheet.
As of June 2020, the UNHCR has registered 766,563 refugees and asylum seekers in Ethiopia, most of whom are housed in refugee camps in six regional states.
Ethiopia currently hosts the second-largest refugee population in Africa, next to Uganda. Refugees in Ethiopia primarily come from Eritrea, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sudan, according to figures from the Ethiopian government.
Conflict and drought in neighbouring countries continue to force people to seek refuge in Ethiopia, which has a long tradition of hosting refugees. Ethiopia has also in recent years hosted an increasing number of refugees fleeing conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Ethiopia’s confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 8,475 after 294 new COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
