Joint Rapid Needs Assessment Mission

Afar Region

02 to 07 December 2020

Background On the 4th of November 2020 conflict erupted between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Regional Government of Tigray, some of the areas along the border with were affected and as result large number of people fled the areas affected by the conflict to safer places within the . Furthermore, the areas along the border were also affected by the shutdown of the telephone network, banking system, electricity, also the inaccessibility to market which resulted in the unavailability of essential food supplies and affected the livelihood of displaced people and host community. With the objectives of understanding the overall situation, humanitarian partners in the Afar region, initiated discussion with the DPFSPCO and suggested organizing assessment mission to assess the impact of the conflict in the areas along the border with Tigray. An agreement was secured to conduct regional government- led assessment mission and as a result humanitarian partners and government sector bureaus mobilized resources and organized two joint teams to carry out five days rapid assessment to seven woredas along the border with Tigray that was directly affected by the conflict. Afar region remains highly vulnerable to a wide range of natural and man-made disasters. The region has been susceptible to recurrent drought, flood, animal diseases, conflict that has led to critical food and water shortages, deterioration of pasture, livestock mortality and large displacement impacting on the lives and livelihoods of the affected community.

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Objectives The mission although was meant specifically to assess the impact of the recent conflict, also provided an opportunity for the team to assess the pre-existed needs. More specifically the mission sought to achieve the following objectives;

• To assess the impact of the conflict and humanitarian needs across the areas that the team was able to visit and gather relevant information by engaging the affected communities and local authority, also observing the overall situation. • The assessment team intended to verify IDPs figures, identify needs and gaps, assess needs related to food security, WASH, Shelter/NFI, Health and Nutrition and Protection. Participants The joint assessment mission consisted of the following participants. Regional Government – (DPFSPCO, Health, Water, Women and Child and Peace and Security) WASH- (UNICEF/WASH Cluster and COOPI) Shelter/NFI- (IOM and NRC) Protection/GBV- (UNICEF/CP and IOM/SMS) Food Security – (WFP) Health and Nutrition (Relief International and GOAL). Logistics – (WFP) Coordination- (OCHA) Education- (Plan and Save the Children) LNGOs- (FSA) Security- (UNDSS)

Methodology Interviews with Key informants using the MIRA questionnaire coupled with observations and focused group discussions with local authorities were used to gather information and assess the situation.

Assessment Findings The findings are divided to general findings and cluster specific ones as listed below;

Displacement- The team was able to confirm and verify the presence of IDPs in all areas that was able to visit, figures vary, however it is very clear people living in all villages/kebeles along the border with Tigray were displaced, though it was very difficult to estimate the exact figures of the total displaced people. Very limited number of Tigrayan people were displaced into the Afar region, local authorities in Yallo confirmed receiving about 1100 Tigrayan people which the team was unable to verify, the IDPs had returned three days prior to the assessment team arrival.

Sr. Woreda Village HHs Individ Estimated no Remarks No uals of HHs in the villages of origin 1 Yallo Walaei 50 300 1870 Locations of displacement (Farada, Halalga, Dar Ada, Munjololi, Genet, Matro Abur and Baru Udayli 85 510 Santawa, Radiyoyeta, Homerto, Nele, Enabagu, and Rakrak 93 558 Alameyta) 2 Tonsa 388 2328 1788 Locations of displacement Milki, Kormada, Karfatu, Leban, Alagoba, Kosoboda, Wara'a and Arfa Aradu 500 3000

Hida 500 3000 3 Aba'ala Adkalu 11 65 2810 Locations of displacement The Afar IDPs Coming from Tigray Region when the conflict Started. Wasama 8 48

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Gelaiso 751 4510 Locations of displacement Lahi Gure, Gali Gure and Giride 4 Adu 397 2382 163

5 Dalol Adukuwa 78 470 521 Bereh 63 380 Adaaro 75 450 Ma’awo 76 460 Asagara 55 330 Ayenedib 66 400 Sebiba 43 260 Beriber 63 380

09 Berahle Halegubi 26 160 33 A’ala Leele a’la 7 40 10 Kuneba Goaa 89 535 208 and Kadhada Efso 57 347 Kuneba 61 368 01 kebele Total 7393 3542 21281

Authorities expect huge influx, should the current full lockdown on Tigray region is eased. Majority of the Tigrayan IDPs interviewed were young people (some are 14 to 16-year-old), who fled for their safety and in fear of enrollment to military.

Some of Afari were displaced from villages within the Tigray region and others from villages along the border with Tigray in the Afar region, all confirmed their willing to return if the situation improved, some of those interviewed confirmed huge displacement within the Tigray region, more specifically in the areas of Mohoni, Atbira, Chirchir and Halaga. The Afari IDPs were worried about properties in livestock in their places of origin, some said they don’t if their houses have been damaged or not. Living conditions for both, recently displaced people and host community remain very critical and require an immediate support more specifically on the areas of food, Shelter/NFI, Health WASH and Protection. The team was able to engage with local community, woreda authorities who reported large number of displacements along the border with Tigray, all people living in the those places were displaced, some lost their properties and livestock and majority currently living with host community and relatives. The conflict is having grave impact on the affected communities both in terms of access to basic services (i.e. food, water, health, nutrition, child protection, social welfare, etc.) and in terms of on-going security and protection issues. There is almost complete disruption of daily life and infrastructure (i.e. power supply, bank system, communication, markets) and perception of insecurity among people in border Woredas, even in Kebeles with no presence of armed actors and no displacement. A key observation was that, while displaced groups are particularly affected, the entire community in the border Woredas has been affected due to the Regional border closure’s impact on availability of food, drugs, health & nutrition supplies and the lack of electricity and fuel on water supply. Resulting protection issues are therefore to be expected in both the displaced and local communities. Worth mentioning also that all interviews with Key informants were only conducted in accessible Kebeles, but communities reported that many IDPs, especially young males, who initially fled to Kebele centres have now moved back to the border areas, within Afar Region, approximately 1 day’s walk from any road, to check on their livestock. The number and status of these IDPs are unknown and provision of assistance to them will be extremely challenging due to their inaccessibility. The category of affected

3 communities includes, Tigrayans and Afar IDPs, host communities, conflict affected community including IDPs-hosting households. Among the IDPs are vulnerable female headed households, children and youth, including unaccompanied and separated children (UASC). In addition, all affected people face significant obstacles to accessing basic needs and services which has profound implications for their physical and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.

Protection and Gender Based Violence: The conflict places women and children at grave risk of Gender Based Violence and life-threatening health complications. Single female headed HHs, with large family sizes of many young children, who were visibly affected by several kinds of health and nutrition conditions (Afar IDPs); Child marriage has been reported by female KIs as a significant protection concern. The problem was already exacerbated by the school closures in March 2020 due to Covid-19 and further intensified by the conflict situation that has forced almost all partners to withdraw from these Woredas and suspend programming. In Woreda, authorities reported that Tigray IDPs who had been living in three Collective Centres in Yalo Woreda were ordered to Tigray by the National Defence Forces, as their areas of origin are now under Federal control. They returned, with the assistance of the authorities, at the end of Nov 2020, while Afar IDPs remained in the Woreda. Key informants interviewed raised the following protection related concerns. • Loss of IDP HH assets due to loss and damage in the conflict and/or due to having to flee suddenly; • Lack of information about the situation of family members in Tigray or in the border area due to lack of telephone network and insecurity; Displacement of registered refugees out of refugee camp ( camp) to the host community (Erebti Woreda and town) due to reported lack of assistance and fear of a spread of fighting1; Afari asylum seekers (48 HHs)from Eritrea are fully dependent on the local community for assistance and their children are unable to access education. Overcrowding of local community shelters due to hosting of IDPs, often of large family size, creating GBV, Child Protection and COVID-19 risks. According to Woreda officials, border areas used by pastoralists for livestock grazing are likely now mined and there is presence of UXO in some locations. Women and female headed HHs have to borrow money and food from business owners which puts them at risk of over indebtedness and this in turn heightens their risk of sexual exploitation and abuse. • Women and children have to walk long distances to collect firewood in the hills (unavailability of charcoal in the markets and no electricity for cooking) which puts them at risk of sexual violence and abduction. KIs reported that women and girls have been sexually harassed and sexually assaulted while on the way to collect firewood and/or water. • Children are also at heightened risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect, harmful practices, rights violations, adverse mental health and psychosocial (MHPSS) wellbeing and resorting to negative coping strategies. • Key informant references fear of forcible recruitment by TPLF which may have included minors, but the age could not be confirmed. • Increased burden on children to help support HH income (i.e. water fetching, firewood collection), as well as school closures represent a risk to children’s access to education and reliance on negative coping strategies, including child labor (both domestic and commercial were reported by KIs). Concerns raised by KIs that adolescent boys have been separated from their families while seeking safety. The conflict has had an immediate and direct psychological impact on the IDP children and families, who have been exposed to traumatic events and emotional distress related to conflict and displacement. Food Security- The complete lockdown the border with Tigray region has affected the availability of food supply in the areas along the border, prices have increased, in some places doubled or tripled, also the inaccessibility to market have affected the sale of the livestock which also affected the community’s ability to purchase essential commodities. Traders' attempts to purchase commodities from Semera and other places was hampered by the increase of transport's costs and fear of potential inability of community to purchase commodities at an increased price. The suspension of subsided essential commodities (wheat

1 Refugee interviewees mentioned that after the fighting, people from Tigray arrived in Berhale camp and brought conflict dynamics into the camp, which partly triggered their departure.

4 flour, oil and sugar) by the government has also affected the availability of food in the markets, almost five months since the delivery of subsided commodities were stopped. All people interviewed including local authorities, IDPs, host communities and traders confirmed that food being their top and No1 priority. The desert locust, COVID lockdown, shortage of rainfall (especially in Aba’ala woreda), shortage of livestock feed and livestock disease outbreak were amongst the factors that aggravated the situation. Despite being displaced for some weeks, IDPs have received no assistance so far, however, the fifth round of food has been dispatched and delivered in some areas. Locals also, said, the shutdown of the banking system and nonfunctionally of market is affecting their livelihood especially the livestock stock market, the main source of their income and cash. People have resorted to different coping mechanisms, this include reduction of number and size of meals, survival on meat and purchasing less expensive type of food. No Commodity Previous price in Quintal Current price 1 Wheat flour 1600 3000

2 Teff 3500 5500 3 Onion 2500 6000 4 Goat medium 2000 700 5 wheat 1100 2500 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH): According to Woreda offices and observation by the assessment team, all 7 woredas are facing significant challenges for the past 1 month. Almost all woredas have been facing water supply shortage due to lack of fuel, inflation of fuel price, and disconnection of electric power. The assessment team visited some shops in Woreda but Household Water Treatment Chemicals (HHWTCs) was not available at any shop visited.

Most motorized and grid power-based boreholes are not giving services at their full capacity and therefore, people are suffering from water shortage and need to travel long distance to fetch water from alternative sources, which poses significant protection risk among women and girls. Therefore, water stress is quite high in all woredas. Inaccessibility to Mekelle and nearby towns in Tigray also made the situation worse because most Woredas are dependent on spare parts supply and maintenance services from Tigray. Lack of reliable water supply at Health Center and school is also observed as a major concern.

The assessment team had observed that sanitation facilities and hygiene practices are almost non-existent. Inaccessibility to sanitation facilities and practice of OD increase GBV risk especially among women and girls. Sanitation facilities are also limited at HCs too.

Access to Kebeles, where several IDPs are reported, is major challenge to assess the detail needs and deliver recommended response activities. This would be a common challenge across all the sectoral responses in the area.

Shelter/NFI- All displaced people are currently hosted with their relatives and host communities, sharing little resources available, this include Shelter/NFI items, housing, bedding and clothing, also between 10 to 20 people are sharing one house as reported by Key informants. In some places, men are sleeping on straight/outside to free space for women and children. Also, IDPs have reported that NFIs are one of the first priority need next to food. Displaced communities are living in very critical situation, they are completely dependent on the host community to meet their basic needs which will be difficult to continue unless support is provided.

Health and Nutrition: Health is the most affected sector in the places assessed. The main reason for the higher impact on the health sector is that the woredas are heavily dependent on health services and health supplies from Tigray region. Following the conflict and total blockage of access to Tigray region, these woredas remained unable to access referral services, health supplies such as medicines and drugs and vaccines. Previously all referral used to be to Hospitals in Mekelle and Adigrat, now patients must travel more than 600 Kms to receive health services, this in addition to Aba’ala. Ambulance services and

5 ambulance-based referrals to hospitals for pregnant women have been severely hindered due to shutdown of network/electricity and no access to hospitals in Tigray. This has led to increase in unassisted home deliveries and maternal deaths. At least 2 woredas (Berhale and Konoba) reported maternal deaths. In Berhale Woreda adolescent girls make up around 22% of pregnancies, which makes this both a critical health and protection concern with life-threatening consequences. Reduced health status of children and older persons due to displacement and/or the overall unavailability of food and healthcare services; Trauma, anxiety and stress related to having directly experienced or having heard the conflict in the Tigray/border area and fear of a continuation or spread of fighting. Pregnant women and girls are at increased risk of negative pregnancy outcomes due to unavailability of food/nutrition and maternal and obstetric care due to power and network cut offs also impacting water supply. The woredas of Afar region, which are in the border areas to Tigray region fully depend on Mekelle for medical supplies, all medical supplies and vaccines, used to be received from Mekelle branch of Ethiopian Pharmaceuticals Supply Agency (EPSA), now this is difficult. Vaccination service is affected by the lack of access to vaccines and inability to mobilize community for outreach vaccination campaigns due to lack of mobile network. Currently, the number of malnourished children is increasing, for children who are already enrolled under emergency nutrition programs and receiving plumpy Nuts and F75 and F100 milk, the health centers are running out of stock. Lack of electricity in the health centers also made it very difficult to prepare F75 and F100 milks for children. The staffing of health facilities has been affected by the departure of Tigrayan health workers and this is affecting the delivery of critical health services.

Education- All schools along the border with Tigray have all closed, also the IDPs are facing difficulty in getting their kids enrolled. As of today, about 45 schools remained closed and all are located in the Kebeles along the border. Also, there is an issue with the teaching staff, the departure of Tigrayan teachers left huge gap that required to be filled. All assessed district has seen substantive reduction in children attendance to schools. In Yallo, the attendance rate dropped to (0-25%), (51% - 75%) in Aba’ala and (76%) in Eribite. Issues related to school feeding, COVID, shortage of water, hygiene and sanitation, collapsed of market have affected the schooling along the border areas. Also, issues related to safety, work income, child marriage and lack of sanitation and hygiene were said to be the reasons for the kids not to attend schools.

Security situation: The team observed very calm situation along the main asphalt road (Semera, , , Megale, Aba’ala and Eribti, team two, Semera, Aba’ala, Berhali, Konneba and Dalul) and all areas visited, all the checkpoints the team passed through were mainly manned by regional special police force except the ones in Yallo (Rakark) and Galaiso where we saw heavy EDF presence. The team was able to go through all checkpoints with very minimal check and verification of clearance documents. Though the situation along the travel route was very calm, the team saw very limited movement of people and cars along the road.

Recommendations and next steps

National and • ICCG to launch cluster specific assessments in the affected areas to understand Sub-national overarching humanitarian needs resulting from the recent conflict and the protracted ICCG ones. • Scale up response and long-term integrated programs especially in areas of WASH, Food, Shelter/NFI, Also Health and Nutrition. • Ensure data collection by local authorities regarding displacement situation in hard- to-reach border Kebeles, including disaggregated data by age, sex, disability, etc , for better targeting of support and resources. • Encourage humanitarian partners with ongoing activities to resume work, as the temporary suspension has created gap, particularly those partners working on health and nutrition sector. • National and Sub-national ICCG to update the Afar response plan, also work with partners to mobilize resources to respond to the urgent needs in the affected areas.

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Food security • Provision of emergency food assistance to the conflict affected people including and market IDPs and host community. • Encourage the government to resume the delivery of the subsided commodities in the affected areas. Also, cooperation is required between the government to stabilize the market, in kind and cash assistance is support is critical to help affected cope with the increase of commodities price. Also, support to community in finding alternative markets for their livestock is paramount in enabling them to provide for their livings. Education • Provision of urgent support to provide school and learning materials kits for IDPs, host and local community children and PPEs for school. Addressing the gap created by the departure of Tigrayans teachers. • Restoration of water supply and prioritization of school feeding programme to enable school reopening and incentivize HHs to send children to school, as well as provision of additional tutorial classes to female students. • Education, MHPSS, and Child Protection actors to coordinate on supporting children with possible exposure to conflict and violence to return to learning by providing mental health and psychosocial support services and referrals. Protection and • Restoration of phone network for family tracing and overall resumption of services Gender Based (including MHPSS and health services, child protection and social welfare, etc); Violence • All actors should systematically implement GBV risk mitigation and protection mainstreaming activities appropriate for their sector and based on the IASC GBV Guidelines, and informed by the risks identified by this assessment. • Provision of Food and ES/NFIs including dignity kits to affected populations, and health and nutrition supplies to local facilities, will have a significant positive affect on protection issues faced in all areas visited. Note – Food, ES/NFIs Health & Nutrition actors to pay particular attention to female and child headed HHs in beneficiary targeting and distribution, including to specific needs of people with disabilities. • Similarly, given the severe logistical challenges of delivering in-kind assistance (food, ES/NFI, WASH, etc.) to remote Kebeles and villages, it is highly likely that beneficiaries would end up selling/trading part of their assistance to pay for its transportation to their place of residence. Transportation provision or voucher/cost- covering mechanism for transportation of assistance for vulnerable HHs should be included by actors providing the assistance. • Provide specialized protection services, assistance and referrals. This includes: child protection and GBV case management and referrals, family tracing, d reunification and alternative family based care, mental health and psychosocial support for children and caregivers, GBV prevention and response, and promotion, prevention and early intervention, response and referral services to support children (including unaccompanied and separated children), women and families at risk of adapting negative coping mechanisms and at risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful practices. • Map out existing services provided by the government and non-government partners for the establishment of referral pathways, and conduct community awareness raising on available services and how to access them. • Ensure linkage with existing community support structures for children and their families where they exist, i.e. child protection committees (CPC)/networks, on early identification and referral of children at risk/ UASC. • Integrate MHPSS interventions in community-based protection, health and education • Establish Accountability to Affected Population/PSEA mechanisms that link with existing community structures used to provide feedback and report concerns by the community. • Undertake coordinated advocacy for the adherence to international standards and protection of IDPs and conflict-affected children.

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WASH Consideration of emergency-development NEXUS response to achieve sustainable solution is highly recommended because the entire community members are severely affected due to limited access to WASH facilities and services. WASH response needs to address these root causes of vulnerability and provide better access to basic WASH services to mitigate potential protection risks and outbreak of water-borne diseases. The followings are recommended actions with that in mind. • Provision of necessary spare parts/repair kits and services to non-functioning schemes, fuel to WASHCO, repair kits • Retraining/reorientation for WASHCO to better manage the existing • Communal latrine construction at health centers, schools and Kebele centers • Water supply at health centers and schools • NFI support in coordination with ES/NFI cluster by adopting multi-sectoral NFI kit or multi-purpose cash transfer if NFIs are available in the market • Hygiene promotion with RCCE in communities • Construct communal latrines (disaggregated by sex) for communities and schools; • Switching of diesel-based water schemes to solar systems. Health and • Local authorities and humanitarian partners to urgently resume health and nutrition Nutrition mobile services in all assessed woredas, also send essential drugs and nutrition supplies meanwhile working on fixing the supply pipeline currently affected by the inaccessibly to warehouses in Mekelle. • Strengthening Health centers at the woreda centers is needed to improve the health services and address problems resulted from current conflict, more specifically the issues of referral system and challenges with maternity health, also addressed the ambulance services affected by the shutdown of telephone network. Additionally, temporary staffing the health facility to bridge the gap created by departure of Tigrayan health workers. Provision of fuel and water trucking to address issue of shortage of water and blackout of electricity. • In the absence of phone network for ambulance calls, ensure resourcing of the Health Centre Maternal Waiting Room system for pregnant women (i.e. food, NFIs, and transport allowance, etc.) so that pregnant women can stay in the Health Centre vicinity in advance of delivery; Shelter/NFI • Respond to the immediate shelter and NFI need of affected population. This could be provision of NFIs/Shelter kits (most preferably in-kind) as immediate response. • Conduct thorough Shelter assessment to identify need in coordination with local authorities and humanitarian partners. Priority will be for those affected population living with the host communities. • Encourage local authorities to identify displaced people in hard to reach areas, also start the registration of all recently displaced IDPs. • Districts to register IDPs with the coordination of humanitarian agencies for an immediate assistance • Using the Health Bureau population prediction to reconcile what has been identified using the assessment with the predicted number of communities bordering with Tigray.

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