Aid cuts hit Ethiopia’s malnourished children, jeopardizing life-saving response
Story | 22 April 2025
Emergency
Ethiopia is a hunger hotspot due to conflict, displacement, climate extremes and economic shocks.
A total of 10.2 million people, of whom 3 million are internally displaced, are severely food insecure.
Ethiopia hosts over 1 million refugees, who rely on food assistance, mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.
Improved harvests have reduced acute food insecurity in some areas but ongoing conflict in some regions and back-to-back climate shocks – droughts, floods and landslides – keep hunger levels high in many places.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has reached 3 million people with food and nutrition assistance since the start of 2025. We plan to support 7.2 million people this year.
Insecurity is disrupting humanitarian operations in the Amhara Region. WFP needs safe passage to continue reaching the most severely food-insecure families.
WFP has both the capacity and ability to deliver at scale, but is expected to receive just over half of last year’s funding. Without urgent new funding, 3.6 million of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable people could be cut from WFP’s life-saving assistance.
We urgently need US$222 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance to Ethiopia’s most vulnerable people, up to September 2025.