An estimated 4.5 million people are currently displaced in both rural and urban locations in Ethiopia, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has disclosed.
The displaced people are mainly in the East African country’s Somali, Oromia and Tigray regions, said the UNOCHA, in its Ethiopia internal displacement overview issued late Thursday.
Data from the UNOCHA show that the majority of the displacements are due to conflicts, which peaked in 2021. About 56 percent of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been displaced for more than one year, while 23 percent have been displaced for two to four years.
Assessments indicated that many of the IDPs, especially those living in protracted displacement situations, can be assisted to return, relocate or locally integrate.
Since January 2022, some 3.3 million IDPs have returned to their areas of origin in different parts of the East African country.
“However, due to ongoing displacement in several regions, the number of IDPs today stands at 4.5 million,” it said.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation after Nigeria with about 126.5 million people, has in recent years witnessed recurrent man-made and natural calamities, including intercommunal violence.
