By Meletus EZE
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) has reached 2.8 million in Ethiopia, up from 1.6 million at the beginning of the year.
In a press statement, UNICEF said Ethiopia also hosts more than 920,000 refugees, mainly from neighbouring Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea.
UNICEF said it expects seasonal flooding to affect 2.5 million people, possibly further increasing the number of IDPs in Ethiopia.
Helping the IDPs and refugees needs an estimated 111.8 million U.S. dollars, 31 per cent of which has so far been donated to UNICEF.
Increasing communal violence and natural disasters across various parts of Ethiopia in the first half of 2018 is thought to be behind the spike in the number of IDPs in the country.
Oromia, Somali and Southern regional states house most of the IDPs in the country.
