UNHCR received only 14 pct of total fund required for Ethiopia’s refugees

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees on Monday said it has only received 14 percent of the USD 346.5 million it requires to meet the needs of refugees in Ethiopia.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the USD 346.5 million are needed to meet the basic nutritional, educational, health, clean water, sanitation and shelter needs of refugees in Ethiopia.

The UNHCR has registered 915,073 refugees as of August 31, 2018 in Ethiopia, most of whom are housed in refugee camps in six regional states.

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Ethiopia hosts the second largest refugee population in Africa, next to Uganda. Refugees in Ethiopia primarily come from Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, according to the UNHCR.

Conflict and drought in neighbouring countries continue to force people to seek refuge in Ethiopia, which has a long tradition of hosting refugees, as reported by Xinhua.

Ethiopia has also in recent years hosted an increasing number of refugees fleeing conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

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