22 million Ethiopians to be in need of food aid in 2022: UN report

CAIRO - 23 December 2021: Around 22 million Ethiopians will be left in need of humanitarian aid in 2022 due to the continued armed conflict, drought, flooding, disease outbreaks and locust infestation, Al-Arabiya cited a report by the United Nations as saying.

The report was issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“Humanitarian needs remain high in several parts of Ethiopia with at least 20 million people requiring some form of humanitarian assistance until the end of the year,” according to the report.

Last week, Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the UN is still receiving credible reports about human rights violations by all sides of the conflict in Ethiopia, which has lasted for over a year.

All parties are accused of committing severe human rights violations due to the crisis in the country, Nashif added.

There is evidence that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had been planning to launch a military campaign against foes in Tigray even before the Nobel Peace Price he was awarded in 2019, an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Wednesday says.

Ahmed was awarded Nobel largely for the peace deal he signed with Isaias Afwerki, the authoritarian leader of Eritrea, only months after he assumed office as president.

The deal ended war between the two countries, which lasted for two decades.

Ahmed and Afwerki exploited the Nobel to plan for a war against their mutual enemies in the Tigray region, the NYT article cited anonymous Ethiopian officials as saying.

The article was written by Declan Walsh, the chief Africa correspondent in the newspaper.

Thousands of civilians have been killed, millions have been displaced, and over nine million people were left dependent on food assistance due to the year-old conflict between Ethiopian government forces and the leadership of Tigray, Reuters reported.

The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency as rebels came closer to the capital, forcing numerous countries to urge their communities to leave Ethiopia immediately.