Recommendation 29

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are amongst the hardest hit by the crisis.69 In March the UN’s initial estimate was that there were 521,200 newly internally displaced people, of whom 493,300 were in Tigray, 23,680 in Afar, and 3,850 in Amhara region. In addition, over 61,000 people from Ethiopia had sought safety in Eastern Sudan.70 Table 1 shows a breakdown of where the 417,152 people (from 108,116 households), newly displaced as a result of the conflict, were living when the IOM carried out its assessments in February 2021 across 96 sites; these figures do not reflect the total displacement, just the number of IDPs identified at the 96 sites that were accessible.71 In November 2020, UNHCR had registered 96,223 Eritrean refugees in Tigray.72 63 UNICEF, Continuing crisis for children in Tigray Ethiopia amid reports of atrocities Ethiopia, Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, 19 March 2021 64 Q31 [James Duddridge] 65 European Commission, Tigray conflict: EU increases humanitarian support by €23.7 million in Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya, 19 December 2020 66 OCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview Ethiopia, February 2021 67 Ethiopia: situation in Tigray, Briefing Paper Number 09147, House of Commons Library, 25 February 2021, p.5 68 PQ154570, 24 February 2021 69 OCHA, Humanitarian Needs Overview Ethiopia, February 2021, p.8 70 UNHCR, Situation Update: Ethiopia, Tigray, 3 March 2021, p.2 71 UNHCR, Regional Update 14: Ethiopia Situation (Tigray Region), 16 March – 7 April, 12 April 2021 72 UNHCR, Situation Update: Ethiopia, Tigray, 3 March 2021, p.2; These refugees are sheltered mainly in four refugee camps in the western part of the region: 21,682 in Mai-Aini, 32,167 in Adi-Harush, 8,702 in Shimelba and 25,248 in Hitsats. On 23 January, Ethiopia’s Government closed Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps and started relocating refugees to Mai Aini and Adi Harush camps. 16 The humanitarian situation in Tigray Table 1: IDPs according to IOM’s displacement tracking