Keeping the promise to leave no one behind: Supporting crisis and conflict-affected communities in Ethiopia
Nyabel, Mebrat, Teklit and Woynshet are among the millions of people who are suffering the devastating impacts of a lasting socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia.
UN entities continue to work together to respond to the situation, contributing their expertise and building on their partnerships. Among other priority interventions, they provide vital support to refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), especially women and girls; assist authorities in ensuring the protection and the provision of essential services for refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs); and support survivors of violence among vulnerable girls from conflict and crisis-affected communities.
Supporting women and girl refugees in Gambella
“I left home under very difficult circumstances, and things at the camp haven’t been easy either. […] You have to depend on donors for everything, including putting food on the table or being able to meet your personal hygiene needs,” said Nyabel Jock, a 19-year-old refugee from South Sudan, during a pregnancy check-up at a health centre in the Jewi Refugee Camp in Gambella, a region of western Ethiopia that hosts more than 370,000 refugees from South Sudan alone.
Besides supporting survivors and women and girls at risk of gender-based violence (GBV) through a One Stop Centre, UNFPA is training healthcare staff and distributing emergency reproductive health kits to facilities in Gambella. The kits include medical equipment, supplies, medicine and solar panels to support sexual and reproductive health services, including maternal and newborn healthcare.
“The ultrasound machine and medical supplies provided by UNFPA have allowed us to identify a host of complications on time, saving many women’s lives,” said Asnake Getachew, a midwife in the maternity ward at the camp.
With the arrivals of new refugees, Gambella’s health and social systems are creaking under ever-increasing needs: In the Jewi camp, the only health centre serves more than 60,000 refugees — six times the recommended maximum of 10,000 people per health centre. Daily food insecurity is also rising as ethnic conflict and drought grip the region and cyclical floods destroy crops and homes. With cuts to food rations recently announced, the plight of refugees in Ethiopia is worsening by the day.
The UNFPA Humanitarian Response Plan for Ethiopia 2021-2022 is urgently calling for nearly US$ 14 million to ensure sexual and reproductive health care for millions of women and girls in the country, including protection from GBV and support for survivors.
In Tigray, IDPs find new hope as social workers serving other displaced persons
“Some people tell me they can’t sleep at night. They have flashbacks of what they saw as they escaped,” said Mebrat, a 32-year-old mother of three who fled her Ethiopian hometown to find refuge in a health centre in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region.
Millions of Ethiopians have been experiencing these flashbacks, since the conflict erupted in Tigray in November 2020 — a conflict that generated tremendous traumas, forcing millions to flee their homes in search of safety.
In addition to distributing blankets, kitchen utensils and shelter materials to IDPs in the Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions in northern Ethiopia, UNHCR has set up more than 60 protection desks accessible to over half a million IDPs.
Mebrat started working as a social worker at one of these protection desks, serving a crucial role by linking displaced persons with humanitarian agencies, and supporting their physical and mental wellbeing.
“This work helps me too as I have also suffered a lot,” she said. “It reminds me that I am still alive and healthy and can help my community.”
Like Mebrat, Teklit fled his home with his wife and two-year-old son. He lost friends on the way, witnessed killings, escaped shelling, spent nights hiding in the bush and walked for days in search of safety. But in his current role as a social worker with UNHCR, he has found new hope.
“I help identify the best way [these displaced children] can be assisted, but the most important thing is to keep them busy and active. We play sports, we laugh, we dance. This is what fulfils me the most,” he said.
Supporting survivors of violence and abuse among vulnerable crisis-affected communities
Woynshet, a 13-year-old girl from the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia, was sent by her parents to work as a housemaid for the daughter of close neighbors.
Far from getting the treatment she expected, she was locked up in the house for three months and endured physical and psychological abuse from her employer, who would throw cleaning liquid on her face, deny her food, hit her and cut her body with a knife and sharp materials, and try to insert metal objects into her genitals. After months with no news from his daughter, Woynshet’s father went to get her. He found her in such a deplorable state that he had to carry her on his back to take her out of the house where she was abused.
“She was not able to talk and move; her skin was burned. I took her straight to Debre Tabor police department to report the case.” he explained.
Thanks to Woynshet’s testimony and the evidence gathered by police and the hospital, the people who abused her were sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Because Woynshet’s story is not unusual across the country, UN Women provides safe havens for vulnerable women and girls. With support from UN Women and funding from OCHA and Denmark, the Association for Women’s Sanctuary and Development, a lolcal non-profit, opened an emergency shelter in Semera, a town in the Afar region, in September 2021, to provide rehabilitation and reintegration services to internally-displaced women and girls survivors of violence due to the ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia.
UN Women has also supported the establishment of five similar shelters in other regions. This work is part of an initiative supported by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to mitigate, prevent, and respond to GBV among vulnerable communities, including IDPs, in Ethiopia.
A safe, lawful, and dignified provision of services to refugees and displaced persons
To help Ethiopia deal with increasing inflow of IDPS and refugees, IOM has forged a partnership with Ethiopia’s Immigration, Nationality and Vital Events Agency (INVEA), supporting immigration and border management frameworks, developing the skills and knowledge of INVEA staff — including trainings in fraud detection and migrant protection, boosting infrastructure, building capacity, and fostering cross-border cooperation.
This partnership is key to helping ensure the safe, lawful, and dignified provision of services to people crossing Ethiopia’s borders.
“Our experience has shown that effective immigration and border management capacity can positively affect a country’s development, including by improving public security and health, stimulating border community trade, and enhancing the protection afforded to victims of trafficking and other vulnerable migrants,” said Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Regional Director for East and Horn of Africa.
Standing ready to support dialogue towards peace
“The United Nations stands ready to support an all-inclusive and nationally owned dialogue, peace, security, and reconciliation process in Ethiopia”, said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Indeed, the ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia is exacerbating the economic and humanitarian crisis that existed in the region. Across all three conflict-affected regions, more than nine million people now need humanitarian food assistance.
“What is clear is that the price for conflict is too high, and therefore, peace is indispensable,” Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said upon her return from a five-day trip to Ethiopia.
Until prospects get better in the country, the UN will continue to uphold the rights of the millions of vulnerable people who live in pain and need support to rebuild their lives.
Story drawn from four original articles initially published on the respective websites of UNFPA, UNHCR, UN Women and IOM. Compiled and edited by the United Nations Development Coordination Office (DCO). To learn more about UN’s work in Ethiopia, please visit Ethiopia.UN.org.