About fifty percent of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia have returned to their homes. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ethiopia, in its first-ever national assessment report, revealed the number of IDPs in the country and their condition.
The Ethiopian government has endorsed IOM’s inaugural National Displacement Report for Ethiopia this week. The data was collected in 1,163 sites throughout the country last July, and it was completed in October. According to the press release of IOM Ethiopia, 1,642,458 people were internally displaced throughout the country.
The survey covered Zones of Gedeo, West Guji, Siti, Kemashi, West Harerge, East Wollega, Dawa, and Fafan.
The leading cause for the displacements was an internal conflict, which took the share of more than 65 percent of the IDPs. The second-largest cause was drought, which displaced about 25 percent of IDPs, followed by the seasonal flood, which takes 2 percent.
According to the survey of IOM Ethiopia, about fifty percent (more than 800,000) of them were returned home in June across 659 villages. The government is taking the main initiative of the operation to return IDPs, which was started in April 2019.
The number of IDPs is often inconsistent when mentioned by reports of different organizations. The government said last July that the number of IDPs at the national level was 2.3 million. Whereas IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) on 5th June 2019 reported 2,194,946 IDPs.
Prime minister Abiy, during his parliamentary appearance a couple of months ago, revealed that for months, the government is working hard to return 2.1 million IDPs to their home. And promise the rest 130,000 to be returned soon. The National Displacement Report for Ethiopia of IOM seems to differ from the prime minister’s report.
