Ethiopia: Helping the displaced
16-01-2003 News Release 03/08
In the past few days, staff and volunteers of the Bale branch of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, aided by ICRC personnel, have distributed emergency non-food relief supplies to some 36,000 displaced people in Oromia region’s Bale zone.
The aid recipients had fled their harsh living conditions in drought-stricken Western and Eastern Hararghe and Arsi. These lowland zones in Oromia region offer little arable land. In Bale zone, many of them found shelter far from any health-care facilities. For the time being, the Ethiopian government is providing them with medical care and monthly food rations while at the same time looking for a durable solution.
The aim of the relief operation was to alleviate suffering, especially of the many thousands of women, children and the elderly who are particularly vulnerable so far from their homes. Each family received blankets, cooking pots, soap, jerrycans and tarpaulins. This is but one example of the many ongoing Red Cross activities countrywide.
Further information: Emret Hege Egziabher, Ethiopian Red Cross Society, tel. ++25 11 15 31 39
or Gianni Volpin, ICRC Addis Ababa, tel. ++25 11 51 83 66