(International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – IFRC)

Description of the disaster

In Ethiopia, rainfall attributed to the Kiremt rains, which began on 8 September 2017 has led to extensive flooding.

The Ambeira zone in Afar region, and special zones surrounding Addis Ababa (the capital), Jima, South-east Shewa, and South-west Shewa in the Oromia region have been worst affected by the rains and flooding.

It is estimated that a total of 18,628 households (HHs) (93,140 people) have been affected from their homes, of which 7,270 HHs (36,350 people) have been displaced.

In the background of the recent floods, the situation has been complicated further by an escalation in civil unrest along the Oromo and Somali border, which stretches more than 1,000km.

Ethnic clashes have led to the displacement of more than 45,000 HHs (225,000 people) from Oromia and Somali regions, including into the neighboring Hareri region.

The flood situation is happening in different areas than the conflict, but the capacity of the NS is being outstretched due to the simultaneity of the two disasters.

Summary of the current response

The Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) is present at across all 11 regions and 33 zones of the country.

It has a pool of 168 Branch Disaster Response Team (BDRT) and 16 National Disaster Response Team (NDRT). The ERCS Afar, Oromia and Somali branches has deployed BDRTs and NDRTs to conduct emergency needs assessments and distributions of emergency shelter (ES) / non-food items (NFIs) to 1,261 HHs (6,305 people) that have been displaced by the flooding in Jima, South-western and Special zones of Oromia zone, utilizing the National Society’s (NS) own internal resources.

The ICRC has also begun distributions of ES/NFIs to 3,000 HHs (15,000 people) that have been displaced due to civil unrest in East Harerghe zone in Oromia region in collaboration with ERCS.

An assessment is going on in the other part of Oromia. The ICRC’s support will be expanded based on the result of the assessment.

ERCS ambulances are also providing evacuation and first aid services to those that have been wounded.

The ERCS has previous experience of implementing IFRC operations, including Emergency Appeal (currently the MDRET016 Drought) and DREF (MDRET017 Floods).

The ERCS is also a lead agency in the Federal NFI/Shelter cluster.

The existing Emergency Appeal focuses on a response to drought and operates in different areas while the DREF focuses on a response to displaced population from floods.

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Read more the report by International Federation of Red Cross And Red Crescent Societies: Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) Ethiopia – [PDF:1mb]