• In early August, intercommunal violence and clashes involving government forces in Ethiopia’s Somali Region displaced nearly 141,400 people across the region, including in and around the region’s Jijiga town, the UN reports. The clashes also resulted in at least 100 deaths and the disruption of commercial activities and public services, according to international media.
• Despite significant challenges—including access constraints, insecurity, supply shortages, and transportation service disruptions—humanitarian actors continue to provide life-saving assistance to vulnerable populations across Ethiopia and Somalia. Relief organizations reached nearly 2.2 million people in Somalia with emergency food assistance in July. In addition, USAID partners and other humanitarian agencies are responding to acute needs in Ethiopia’s Oromiya, Somali, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) regions by providing emergency food, health, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assistance to vulnerable host community members and internally displaced persons (IDPs), among other activities.
• The United States is the largest humanitarian donor in Ethiopia, providing more than $1.6 billion in assistance to the people of Ethiopia, as well as to refugees sheltering in Ethiopia, since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2015.
• In Fiscal Year 2018, the U.S. Government has provided more than $327 million to date.