Situation of IDPs in Somali region deteriorating

Fears are mounting for the welfare of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in eastern Ethiopia, the United Nations warned on Friday. Disease, lack of food and dwindling water supplies are hitting the IDPs, the UN said in a special alert. "There is a need to respond with timely assistance in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further," said the joint statement issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the government of the Somali National Regional State (SNRS). "It is necessary to speed up reintegration efforts from these areas and to secure the return of the IDPs to their areas of origin." The UN aims to quickly "reintegrate" the IDP families into their original communities and provide transport and medical support to get them home. It is appealing for an immediate sum of US $180,000 to provide support for the IDPs, many of whom are Ethiopians who have come in from neighbouring Djibouti and Somaliland. The statement issued on Thursday, said conditions in Fafen and Hartishek, the two man camps where the IDPs are gathering, were worsening as food and water were running out. In one area, 7,000 people who had not received water for three months were "placing an additional burden on the limited existing resources", it noted. "Food allocations to the camps are resented by the local population, who are no longer included in general food distribution," it said of Fafen camp. In Hartishek, the statement added, the town had been hit by a "serious economic decline" affecting local people, and the arrival of thousands of IDPs was fuelling tension. A total of 15,000 IDPs in the camps were facing a "deteriorating situation" and the UN and the SNRS intended to "return and reintegrate" 6,000 of them immediately, the statement said. "In both these camps the only viable alternative is to move the IDPs back to their areas of origin where they can be incorporated within wider processes of regional development within their home communities," it added. "The current situation necessitates a timely and well-coordinated response from concerned partners." In Ethiopia there are about 200,000 IDPs displaced by war, famine and drought, many of them women and children. Along the disputed 1,000-km border with Eritrea, some 76,000 IDPs have for various reasons remained unable to go home, often because their areas of origin are contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance.