Drought stricken people in Sekotta, Wollo, migrating to cities

ESAT News (April 8, 2016)

Victims of drought in Sekotta Wollo have migrated to Bair Dar, Mekelle and Debre Berhan towns to save their lives.

One of the victims told ESAT that 400 people have arrived in Debre Berhan town and the only people left in Sekotta were some government employees and the elderly. He said drinking water was 2 hours away from their villages and the 6 kilos of flour they get as food aid per month was not enough to survive.

The drought victims have taken shelter at a church and the town’s administrative office.

Aid agencies fear the delay in the arrival of the food aid could worsen the humanitarian situation in areas severely affected by the drought.

Ethiopian officials have recently decided to use the Ports of Berbera in Somaliland and Sudan as the waiting time at the Port of Djibouti has been found to be too long.

The Ethiopian government last week ordered ships loaded with food aid to Ethiopia waiting at the port of Djibouti to sail to Berbera and Sudan.

Ethiopian officials told local media that the port of Djibouti was backed up and a decision has been made to use the port of Berbera and port of Sudan. Ethiopia’s ministry for transportation said last week that the country had faced logistical crises and negotiations were underway to rent trucks from Sudan to transport the food to Ethiopia. The UN had also expressed concern on the shortages of trucks to carry the food once it reached the ports.