ADDIS ABABA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed on Monday the provision of medical supplies and drugs that will help treat more than 50,000 internally displaced Ethiopians for three months.
According to WHO, the medical support, constituting 50 basic Inter-agency Emergency Health Kits (IEHK) of drugs and medical supplies, will support Ethiopia's southern Gedeo Zone in its response to the health needs of the escalating inter-communal violence affected displaced people.
The supplies were delivered following WHO representative's visit to the zone to assess the situation on the ground and ways to support local government's efforts to address the immediate health needs of the more than 800,000 IDPs sheltered in different locations in the zone, it was noted.
WHO Representative to Ethiopia Akpaka Kalu, after assessing the situation of the IDPs, stressed an immediate need to improve IDPs' living conditions, including access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene at the IDP sites and conduct an immunization campaign at the sites and in host communities to avoid disease outbreaks.
Various international aid organizations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have recently called for swift measures to support internally displaced people in Ethiopia, mainly due to inter-communal clashes over the past few months.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that nearly 1 million people are displaced and require urgent help, especially during this rainy season.
The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) also on Thursday released 15 million U.S. dollars to urgently scale up humanitarian assistance to people affected by escalating inter-communal violence in Ethiopia.
