Friday April 29, 2022
Ambassador Jacobson, Chargé d’Affaires, of the US embassy in
Addis Abeba, and Adam Schmidt, Deputy Mission Director of USAID in Ethiopia met
the with the president of the Somali region, Mustafe Muhammed, and regional
officials to assess and understand the devastating drought [and relief response
efforts] which has affected 9 of 11 zones in the Somali region. Ambassador Jacobson vowed that the U.S. will continue offering support to alleviate
the impacts of the drought.
At the press briefing, yesterday following the trip made by
both dignitaries as part of a wider delegation to the Somali region, Ambassador
Jacobson began by highlighting the extremely concerning the situation on the
ground as what could be the ‘worst drought in a century according to early
warning systems, she noted that elders she spoke with in the Edolo IDP camp
attested to the devastation caused by this drought to their livestock and
livelihoods.
Offering insight to current U.S. humanitarian efforts, the
ambassador stated that 100 million USD had been dedicated thus far in the areas
of direct food assistance, essential nutritional, and medical plus
agricultural-livestock support. Ambassador Jacobson stressed a commitment to
all people across Ethiopia, in line with the long-standing relationship between
both countries. Furthermore, expressing appreciation to the regional government
for the ongoing collaboration.
However, there lies a total requirement of 550 million USD
to meet the needs of the people, leaving a huge funding gap of 275 million USD,
the ambassador underlined. And accordingly, expressed hope that other partners
[both national and international] would step up to address this urgent gap.
Deputy Director Adam Schmidt, on his part, stated that it
was significant to see the effects of this drought and additionally understand
partnerships [to tackle it] at the local and regional levels. He said that
there was a commitment to continue such partnerships, however, stressing that
additional support was essential and that such a trip to the affected areas can
motivate mobilization of resources as an outcome.
Questions were raised from the media, especially about how
the current relationship between the Ethiopian government and the United States
impacts the assistance endeavors to which the ambassador replied, “Our
assistance is based on need, not on politics. And that the U.S. has a positive
working relationship with the government of Ethiopia.”
Addis Standard also forwarded questions to the ambassador
and deputy director asking what immediate steps does the US plan on taking to
address discrepancies from failing to engage the needed 275 million USD from
partners: “We are doing our part, we just got an additional 13 million USD, we
also participated in a pledging conference in Geneva, I think we are doing our
part on order to mobilize our own resources from the U.S. government but also
working to encourage others to mobilize their resources as well,” the
ambassador responded.
Deputy Director Schmidt added “We are continuing to stress
the need and that is particularly part of this visit to understand directly
what the challenges are. There is an opportunity to bring more needed attention
to the immediate challenges.” Furthermore, he said that ‘hopefully through
donor pledging conferences and other events, there will be a real support to
meet that deficiency but it is a whole effort to cross many stakeholders. ‘
Addis Standard also put a question about U.S. readiness for
potential outbreaks occurring in the IDP camps to which ambassador Jacobson
answered, “Not only with the drought, but there is a robust team at the
Ethiopian CDC center and they have worked with all levels of government in
Ethiopia to build a network of early warning and surveillance for outbreaks of
any kind of contagious disease and that work is ongoing in everywhere in
Ethiopia.” Pointing to a visit to the IDP camps, she mentioned that U.S. relief
assistance also included providing immunization screening to children to the
measles vaccine and as such, no outbreak has been seen in the camp.
Underscoring prevention, the ambassador remarked that, ‘immunization is the
key.’