Kombolcha – Amhara Region, Ethiopia - “UNFPA is here today to make sure we provide the support needed for the 700,000 displaced people in Amhara region and that the health facilities - which are already overstretched - have the capacity to deliver life-saving services” said Ms. Dennia Gayle, UNFPA Representative, during the official handover ceremony of medical supplies on September 22 in Kombolcha, Amhara Region to address the recent humanitarian crisis in the region. Emergency reproductive health kits and dignity kits were handed over at the ceremony in the presence of H.E. Dr. Dereje Duguma, State Minister of Health and officials of the Amhara Region Health Bureau.  

 UNFPA delivered 20,000 Dignity Kits and 145 emergency reproductive health kits to serve more than 200,000 internally displaced people in 22 health facilities. Meanwhile, emergency reproductive health kits and dignity kits were also handed over to the Afar Region to respond to the recent humanitarian crisis in the region bringing the total worth of the medical and hygiene supplies donated by UNFPA to the Amhara and Afar regions to nearly 1 million USD.

Nearly 900,000 people have been newly displaced as a result of the conflict in Tigray which has spiraled into bordering areas of the Amhara and Afar regions since July, 2021. Climate-related shocks and intercommunal conflicts are also impacting more than 5 million people across Amhara and Afar regions.  

 Mentioning that essential health care services have been disrupted as a result of the conflict, H.E. Dr. Dereje Duguma, State Minister of Health of Ethiopia expressed during the ceremony his appreciation for the support and leadership of UNFPA to provide “life-saving supplies to serve our mothers and sisters at the right time and when it is most needed”.

 Ms. Dennia Gayle reassured that “UNFPA is particularly concerned for the thousands of displaced women and adolescent girls who remain in urgent need of essential and life-saving health, protection and support services. We will do everything at our hand to deliver the urgently needed support and to ensure no one is left behind in both Afar and Amhara regions”.

Since the onset of the conflict in northern Ethiopia, UNFPA has been closely working with government implementing partners and other humanitarian actors to address the humanitarian needs of IDPs and host communities with gender-based violence prevention and response, sexual and reproductive health and psychosocial support interventions.  

In Amhara region alone, UNFPA life-saving sexual and reproductive health supplies and dignity kits have reached nearly 400,000 conflict-affected people and 28 health facilities with a budget amounting 559,000 USD. In Afar region, UNFPA provided sexual and reproductive health kits for 16 health facilities reaching out to more than 283,000 people, 20,000 Dignity Kits and one ambulance with the financial support of the Government of Denmark, the Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund (EHF) and the CERF Anticipatory Action Framework project.