EU announces €122.5 mln in humanitarian aid for Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, April 8, 2016 (FBC) – European Commission has announced €122.5 million euro for Ethiopia to address the immediate needs of people affected by the El Niño-driven drought in Ethiopia.

This new support aims to combine a humanitarian response and early recovery assistance with initiatives that address the root causes of fragility and vulnerability, EU said in a statement it sent to FBC today.

The new EU funding comes on top of a first El Niño emergency package announced in December last year that consisted of €79 million for the Greater Horn of Africa region and from which nearly €43 million will benefit Ethiopia.

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Christos Stylianides and European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica also said: “Our support aims at combining short-term lifesaving with strengthening Ethiopia’s resilience by addressing the root causes of fragility and vulnerability. We can build on the past successes of Ethiopia which has already stepped up its efforts to tackle the drought crisis.”

Commissioners Mimica and Stylianides are currently in Ethiopia in the framework of the College to College (C2C) conference taking place in Addis Ababa, where Commissioners from the European Union and the African Union are meeting.

Today Commissioners Mimica and Stylianides together with Vice-President responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen visited one of the worst hit areas in Ethiopia, Dire Dawa, to assess the humanitarian situation.

The EU has been providing both emergency humanitarian funding and long term development support to Ethiopia cope with these various challenges. It has provided over €200 million in humanitarian aid in the last five years.

Ethiopia is also the largest beneficiary of EU development assistance, with a country programme of €745 million for 2014-2020 (through the 11th European Development Fund.) Out of this amount a total of €252 million has been provided to finance food security, sustainable agriculture and to fight climate change.

The support is coherent with the EU Resilience Approach that combines a humanitarian response with initiatives that addresses the root causes of fragility and vulnerability.