Interview: Emergency response well underway in drought-hit areas of Ethiopia: disaster relief chief

The Ethiopian government is implementing various interventions in drought affected areas, despite slow response from the global community, Mitiku Kassa, head of the National Disaster Risk Management Commission, told Xinhua Thursday.

"The Ethiopian government, after taking lessons from the successful intervention response of last year's El Nino induced drought, is implementing various interventions in areas affected by the current drought," said Mitiku.

"So far there is no death or fatality of human being," he said. "Death of livestock has been already reported in heavily affected areas of Afar, Oromia and other parts of the country."

The Government of Ethiopia and its humanitarian partners in January officially launched the Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) for 2017 looking for 948 million U.S. dollars to reach out 5.6 million people with emergency food and non-food assistance.

According to the commissioner, the Ethiopian government has recently allocated one billion Ethiopian birr (47 million U.S. dollars) to provide food and non-food components to drought affected areas in the country.

Mitiku, however, indicated that despite the Ethiopian government's effort in tackling the impacts of the existing drought that hits the southern and southeastern part of the country, "the response from the global community is so slow."

According to Mitiku, the major reason for the slow response rate from the global community is the stretched needs across the globe mainly in the horn of Africa and the Sahel region together with the political instability in the Middle East.

The drought affected areas cover the southern and southeastern part of the east African country, mainly the Ethiopian Somali, southern part of Oromia, and the southern part of the SNNPR region.

The performance of the coming spring rain in the country will determine the magnitude of the drought, according to him.

He also advised other African countries to work on disaster risk reduction activities, saying that "it is the only means that enables all African countries to withstand the adverse effect of climate change."

The 2017 Humanitarian Requirements Document presents prioritized plans in water and sanitation (WASH), agriculture, relief food, nutrition, health, education, protection, and shelter and non-food items in the affected areas. Out of the 948 million U.S. dollars sought for the 2017 response, 598 million dollars is targeted for relief food, 105 million dollars for nutrition, and 86 million dollars for WASH needs. Endit