OCHA Situation Report
Ethiopia
29 May 2006


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

EMERGENCY ASSESSMENT IN EAST HARERGHE FOUND SIGNS OF MALNUTRITION IN 
FEDIS WOREDA

A rapid government/UN/NGO emergency assessment investigating reports of 
deteriorating food conditions in seven woredas of East Harerghe zone, 
Oromiya, has found only one woreda with serious signs of malnutrition. 
The assessment's main objective was to identify core operational 
constraints in the implementation of the Productive Safety Net Programme 
(PSNP) and relief food assistance which cover a total of 650,000 
beneficiaries in the zone. Overall, the mission found that the food 
security situation is not critical, and did not observe abnormal trends 
or cases of malnutrition among vulnerable groups visited.  A good 
harvest from the last main agricultural season, current good belg (short 
season) rain performance and joint efforts by NGOs and government 
offices in adverting deteriorating conditions are amongst the main 
reasons for this current situation.

However, exceptions were found in one woreda (Fedis), where the mission 
observed a significant number of malnourished children in villages 
visited and in therapeutic feeding centres run by NGOs. This situation 
is serious and has been aggravated by a low emergency beneficiary figure 
for 2006, delays in resource transfers to beneficiaries under the PSNP 
and food allocation breaks at the end of 2005 and the beginning 2006 for 
relief programmes.  Relief resources have been dispatched and 
distributed to beneficiaries from March, as per the plan in most 
woredas, and resource transfers to beneficiaries under the PSNP is now 
being undertaken. The mission recommends the Disaster Prevention and 
Preparedness Agency (DPPA) to release additional food relief resources 
for about 16,000 beneficiaries in Fedis who have been under close 
monitoring since December, and that blanket supplementary feeding take 
place for the vulnerable part of the population. The situation in Kersa 
woreda was also found to be worrying and should be closely monitored. 
For more information contact: wfp.addisababa@wfp.org

RELIEF FOOD UPDATE

The DPPA daily dispatches continue in Somali Region despite delays in 
the food movement due to security problems and difficult road conditions 
in the region because of heavy rains.  Of the 23,500 tonnes of relief 
food allocated for Somali in February, 91 percent has been dispatched to 
date. DPPA has also started moving March allocations for Afder, Liben 
and Fik zones and out of the 6,254 tons allocated so far 59 percent has 
been dispatched.  DPPA has completed transporting 185 tonnes of relief 
food allocated to West Imi district of Afder zone in April.  For Borena 
zone of Oromiya, the DPPA has dispatched 97 percent of the 2,500 tons of 
food aid allocated in February and 96 percent of the 2,500 tons food 
allocated in March. DPPA is also currently transporting the allocation 
made in April for Borena and to date 57 percent out of 2,722 tonnes has 
been dispatched. The federal DPPA has finished transporting the 875 
tonnes of relief food allocated for Afar in March and is in the process 
of starting to dispatch the allocation done in April. For more 
information contact: wfp.addisababa@wfp.org

CONCERN OVER ACUTE WATERY DIARRHOEA SITUATION IN AKOBO WOREDA, GAMBELLA

Although the number of new cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) reported 
to Gambella Hospital and health centres in Gambella Region has been 
decreasing since the second week of May, the Regional Health Bureau 
(RHB) is concerned regarding the AWD situation in Akobo woreda, which 
borders Sudan. Prevention and response to the outbreak in Akobo, where 
there is no health services, is hampered by inaccessibility due to the 
lack of roads.

Meanwhile, the treatment of AWD at Gambella hospital, which was 
undertaken by MSF-CH since the outbreak of the disease, has been handed 
over to the hospital as of 16 May. According to MSF-CH, the total attack 
rate since the start of the disease was 3 percent. In refugee camps, no 
cases of AWD have been reported since those in Fugnido camp at the 
beginning of the month. The repatriation of refugees was put on hold 
when the AWD outbreak began, and will not be resumed until the disease 
has been totally contained, with approximately three to four weeks of 
zero cases reported.  For more information contact: HQdist@unhcr.ch

INCREASING PREPAREDNESS FOR POSSIBLE MALARIA OUTBREAK IN FIVE ZONES OF 
OROMIYA REGION

With the risk of a malaria epidemic in southern Ethiopia currently at 
its highest level in recent years, activities identified as crucial to 
preventing an epidemic include timely delivery and management of 
essential drugs, effective distribution of Insecticide Treated Nets 
(ITNs), and intensified disease surveillance. Planning is underway by 
the Oromiya RHB and UNICEF for a campaign to distribute 400,000 ITNs to 
17 woredas in Borena, Guji, Bale, and West and East Hararghe zones in 
Oromiya Region. A Training of Trainers (ToT) in participatory 
communication is also planned, provided by Population Services 
International (PSI), for woreda staff and NGOs assisting in the ITN 
distribution.  Meanwhile, the RHB and WHO distributed essential drugs to 
all health centres in Borena zone, which are now dispatching the 
supplies to the health facilities. A ToT was also conducted at zonal 
level on the prevention of communicable diseases, with those trainers 
then training woreda level staff. For more information contact: 
mapted@unicef.org and who-wro@et.afro.who.int.

For further information, please contact

UN OCHA -Ethiopia
Tel: 251- 11- 544 41 86/251- 11- 544 41 62
Fax: 251- 11- 5511292
email: ocha-eth@un.org
Website: www.ocha-eth.org

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