The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concerns on Wednesday that the "disastrous combination" of climate change and violence was keeping millions in Eastern Africa on the run from this "near-constant crisis."
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2020) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed concerns on Wednesday that the "disastrous combination" of climate change and violence was keeping millions in Eastern Africa on the run from this "near-constant crisis."
Citing the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the ICRC said that climate shocks and violence in 2019 daily pushed 3,715 people out of their homes in Ethiopia and 1,860 in Somalia.
"Ethiopia saw the highest number of new displacements triggered by violence last year in Africa: 930,000, with another 426,000 displaced by droughts and floods. In the same period, IDMC recorded 500,000 displacements due to disasters and another 180,000 from violence and armed conflict in Somalia," the ICRC said.
The Red Cross put a special focus on climate change, saying that countries in East Africa - constantly caught between droughts and floods - were among most vulnerable to its effects, "despite being least responsible for it."
"When violence and disasters overlap, people are often displaced from their homes not just once, but again and again, and often for long periods of time. This disastrous combination leaves families struggling to make ends meet and uncertain when they will return home, if ever," ICRC President Peter Maurer said.
The statement follows Maurer's visit to the region.
