HIGHLIGHTS
-
Opening of Gaaluun bridge at Dawa river improves humanitarian access to Dawa zone.
-
As part of the national plan to rehabilitate internally displaced persons in Oromia and Somali regions, the Oromia region is settling some 86,000 IDPs in 12 towns across the region.
-
An ‘Alert’ released by Government and humanitarian partners estimated up to 7 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the first half of 2018, requiring some US$895 million
New bridge improves humanitarian access to Dawa zone of Somali region
On 10 January 2018, the Somali Regional Government officially opened Gaaluun bridge at Dawa river for public use, boosting humanitarian access to beneficiaries in Dawa zone of the region. The completion of the bridge coupled with improvements in security situation along the border between Oromia and Somali regions provides humanitarian actors access to reach affected communities with essential services. Light vehicles as well as heavy trucks with heavy loads (maximum 40 Metric Tons) can access the route to Dawa via this bridge. Inaccessibility to Dawa zone for the past five months impeded the delivery of relief food and non-food items to drought and conflict-affected communities within the zone.
Dawa is one of the most severely affected zones by drought and conflict where WFP alone, in support of the government of Ethiopia, provides assistance to more than 300,000 beneficiaries in four woredas/districts, of which 140,000 (including 95,000 internally displaced persons) receive relief food, 147,224 benefit from productive safety net programme and 14,822 are supported by targeted supplementary feeding programmes.
The construction of this bridge could also be taken as a classic example of linking development work to support humanitarian access. Partners are advised to prioritize the preposition of supplies before the seasonal Gu rains (April-June) make the roads impassable.
Read More News Here Source link
