‘We left everything behind and started running’: Voices away from home in Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia
Story | 14 January 2025
Emergency
Ethiopia
- 5.5 million
- are severely food insecure
- 7.7 million
- people received WFP support in 2024
- US$338 million
- needed for WFP operations up to May 2025
Ethiopia is a hunger hotspot due to conflict, displacement, climate extremes and economic shocks.
A total of 5.5 million people, of whom 1.7 million are internally displaced, are severely food insecure.
Ethiopia hosts over 1 million refugees who rely on food assistance, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.
Improved harvests have reduced acute food insecurity in some areas but ongoing conflict in some regions and back-to-back climate shocks – droughts, floods and landslides – keep hunger levels high in many places.
The World Food Programme (WFP) reached 7.7 million people in 2024 with food and nutrition support, including new arrivals from Sudan.
Insecurity is disrupting humanitarian operations in the Amhara Region. WFP needs safe passage to continue reaching the most severely food-insecure families.
WFP has both the capacity and ability to deliver at scale, but limited funding is hampering the delivery of life-saving assistance to millions of vulnerable people.
We urgently needs US$338 million to continue delivering assistance to Ethiopia's most vulnerable people, up to May 2025.
What the World Food Programme is doing to respond to the Ethiopia emergency
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Emergency response
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WFP provides food to verified and vulnerable returnees in southern and northwestern zones of Tigray. We also provide refugees with cash transfers.
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Resilience
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A key element of WFP’s response is building resilience to break the cycle of food insecurity, reaching 620,000 people in 2024 with initiatives such as providing seed inputs, mechanization, market access and post-harvest loss technologies. WFP is rolling out resilience-building activities to help communities to prepare and protect their livelihoods in the drought-risk Oromia, Somali and Southern regions. Support will target over 200,000 people with cash assistance, and nearly 300,000 with livestock feed vouchers.
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School meals
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WFP provides daily school meals to about 400,000 school-age children every month. WFP prioritizes school meals for conflict-affected and food-insecure woredas in northern Ethiopia.
How you can help
WFP urgently needs funding to ensure interrupted support to those in need.
Donate now