ADDIS ABABA, July 12 (Xinhua) -- More than 800,000 people in southern Ethiopia are forcibly displaced from their homes due to inter-communal clashes, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) disclosed on Thursday.
"This crisis is completely off the radar of the international community and the consequences of this neglect could be dire," ICRC quoted Shirin Hanafieh, ICRC's assessment team leader, as saying on Thursday.
"If humanitarian assistance is not scaled up quickly, people will be at-risk of malnutrition and disease outbreaks, especially as the rainy season sets in," Hanafieh added.
ICRC, together with the Ethiopian Red Cross, visited Kochere district in Gedeo zone in Southern Ethiopia, one of the areas with a large number of people displaced by clashes that broke out in Gedeo and West Guji zones.
"People are struggling to live in anything resembling basic dignity," said Hanafieh.
According to Hanafieh, the displaced people are presently crowded into schools, office buildings, and churches, sleeping on the floor without mats and blankets. Food and clean water is scarce at best.
The ICRC and the Ethiopia Red Cross Society also revealed that as part of their response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis will start providing relief to 100,000 people in Kochere district, Gedeo zone.
"This will include providing medicine and health supplies to local clinics as well as water tanks, tarps, and other efforts to improve the quality of water and sanitation facilities," the ICRC indicated on Thursday.
The clash in Gedeo and West Guji zones is the latest resurgence of inter-communal violence in Ethiopia over land which have driven widespread displacement.
