ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's Refugees and Returnees Service (RRS), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the World Food Program (WFP) on Friday called for more support for refugees in Ethiopia as the refugee response in the country is on the verge of collapse.
Unless immediate injection of funds is made, essential life-saving services, including food, water, and healthcare for over 1.1 million refugees in the East African country, will cease within weeks, the agencies warned in a joint statement.
Ethiopia, the second-largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, has seen a surge in refugee arrivals due to conflicts in Sudan and South Sudan, as well as drought in Somalia, the statement said, adding that the severe funding shortfalls have already forced aid agencies to cut emergency relief supplies by 70 percent in 2025.
"Our resources are stretched to the limit, and the pressure on host communities is becoming unbearable," the statement quoted RSS Director General Teyiba Hassen as saying.
"At this critical time, immediate international support to share this burden and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe is a must," she added.
The joint statement said that in October, the WFP was forced to cut food rations for 780,000 refugees to just 40 percent of the standard entitlement, providing less than 1,000 calories per day.
The funding cuts have already triggered a sharp rise in malnutrition, which now exceeds 15 percent in the refugee camps. "Tragically, mortality rates among newborns and children under one year rose to 4.7 percent in 2025," the statement revealed.
