Geneva —
Ambassador Shiferaw Teklemariam, commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission, told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday that he hoped the pledging event would turn things around and donor nations would provide critical lifesaving support to Ethiopia. Failure to do so, he said, would have serious consequences.
Andrew Mitchell, Britain's deputy foreign secretary and minister for Development and Africa who recently visited Ethiopia, said he saw increasingly worrying signs of famine-like conditions emerging in conflict areas in the north. Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. assistant secretary-general, resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia, noted that the compounded effect of back-to-back climate shocks and conflicts"is quite devastating."
"The challenges are working on improving the access, which is not fluid. Sometimes we are prevented in reaching people and people cannot reach us because of insecurity. ... In many parts of Ethiopia that situation needs to improve," he said.