Key messages
• Ethiopia will continue to face recurrent drought due to climate change. Short term emergency interventions remain critically important in saving lives, however these need to be supported by medium to long term actions that are geared towards boosting the resilience, livelihoods, and food security of the affected communities.
• Even though official figures show a slight decrease in the number of people in need of food assistance (from 3.76 million in 2nd half of 2012 to 2.5 million in the 1st half of 2013), some areas are still in critical need of humanitarian assistance such as Afar, West and East Haraghe or Bale zones.
• Ethiopia is hosting close to 390 000 refugees; arriving from neighbouring countries, mainly from Somalia. The influx of refugees requires constant monitoring and adaptation of the refugee programme, including exercises verifying the number of refugees as well as, if necessary, the opening of additional refugee camps.