Question Period Note: Canada's Humanitarian Response in Ethiopia.

Canada is deeply concerned by the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia.

• To date in 2021, Canada has provided $43 million in humanitarian funding to address life-saving needs throughout Ethiopia, including in response to the devastating conflict in the north of the country.
• This support to our humanitarian partners is providing food, safe water, healthcare, and other critical assistance to people affected by conflict and natural disasters in Ethiopia. We continue to monitor the situation and will consider further assistance, based on needs.
• Canada is greatly concerned by ongoing reports of human rights abuses and the obstruction of humanitarian access in northern Ethiopia.
• We call on all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including to protect civilians and to allow rapid and unimpeded access to populations in need.

The conflict in northern Ethiopia has entered its second year and the resulting humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. Current estimates indicate that 5.2 million people in Tigray require humanitarian assistance, including more than 2 million displaced from their homes and, at least, 400,000 facing famine conditions. In neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, a further 2.9 million people require assistance as a result of the expanding conflict. Humanitarian access remains restricted, with the Government of Ethiopia imposing a bureaucratic blockade on Tigray, limiting the entry of humanitarian supplies and personnel. A joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN Human Rights Office, released on November 3, found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict in Tigray have committed a series of violations and abuses, including unlawful killings and extra-judicial executions, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, violations against refugees, and forced displacement of civilians. International efforts calling for humanitarian access have, so far, yielded few concrete results. Outside of the conflict-affected north, at least another 13 million Ethiopians, and 800,000 refugees from neighboring countries, require humanitarian assistance as a result of intercommunal violence, drought, locust infestations, and the ongoing impact of the COVID pandemic. (In total, at least 21 million people in Ethiopia now require humanitarian assistance and this number is likely growing as the northern conflict expands.)

To date in 2021, Canada has provided $43 million to meet emergency needs in Ethiopia. Canada's humanitarian assistance is being delivered through UN, Red Cross, and NGO partners to provide food, safe water and sanitation, treatment for acute malnutrition and other healthcare, emergency shelter, and protection to crisis-affected people in Ethiopia. This funding includes substantial support to the Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund, a pooled fund which allows for timely and flexible funding in response to deteriorating situations or emerging crises, such as the rapidly evolving conflict in the north.

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