Economy
El Niño-Linked Drought Affects 3.5 Million People Across Six Regions In Ethiopia
The Reporter · 3 hours ago · Read the Full Story on The Reporter
AI SUMMARY
A severe El Niño-linked drought has impacted 3.5 million people across six regions in Ethiopia, destroying crops, killing livestock, and severely straining food security and public services.
- A severe drought linked to El Niño has affected 3.5 million people across 101 woredas in six regions of Ethiopia due to successive failures of the Belg and Kiremt rains.
- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies recorded 250,035 hectares of damaged cropland, 28,629 livestock deaths, and more than 319 dried-up water points.
- The IMF projects El Niño will persist through February 2027, reducing Sub-Saharan Africa's median GDP growth by 0.5 percentage points and raising median inflation by 2.6 percentage points.
- In West Hararghe, Oromia, drought damaged 316,986 hectares of cropland, left only eight out of 229 community ponds with water, and created urgent needs for 696,873 people across 15 woredas.
- In Tigray, 405,288 people were reported affected, with 3.3 million livestock facing feed shortages and nine types of animal diseases identified across 13 woredas.
- In North Gondar, Amhara, 318,443 people and 19,318 displaced individuals faced shrinking food stocks and worsening water scarcity.
- A June 2026 screening in West Hararghe identified 24,925 children with moderate acute malnutrition and 2,896 with severe acute malnutrition out of 464,880 children screened.
- The Ethiopian Red Cross Society plans to assist 50,000 people through a six-month operation backed by 749,973 Swiss francs from the IFRC's Disaster Response Emergency Fund.
- Planned interventions include distributing seeds, fertilizer, and livestock fodder, providing cash assistance, rehabilitating 35 water systems, and deploying health workers.
- The planned target of 50,000 beneficiaries represents only 1.4 percent of the 3.57 million people reported affected, highlighting a massive gap between humanitarian need and response capacity.
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