Ethiopia — National Displacement Report 8 (March — April 2021)

In order to capture the displacement and return dynamics in Ethiopia, DTM Ethiopia's National Displacement Report combines findings from its Site Assessment (SA) in Section 1 and findings from the Village Assessment Survey (VAS) in Section 2. The Site Assessment tracks the number and multisectoral needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs), while the Village Assessment Survey tracks the number of IDPs who are returning or have returned to their communities and their multisectoral needs. VAS is also used to evaluate the absorption capacity of villages receiving returns with a focus on accessibility of services, livelihoods and reintegration. 

Through Site Assessment (SA), a total of 1.96 million IDPs were identified in 1,379 sites across 11 regions in Ethiopia. Conflict displaced an estimate of 1.25 million IDPs, followed by drought which displaced 318,992 IDPs, flash floods which displaced 156,815 IDPs and seasonal floods which displaced 113,388 IDPs, among other displacement reasons.

During the same period, a total of 1.99 million IDPs were also tracked through the Emergency Site Assessment (ESA) round 6 which is a monthly tool used to track internal displacement in Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions caused by the crisis in Northern Ethiopia. Combining the SA and ESA figures brings the total to 3.95 million IDPs identified throughout the country thus far. However, kindly note that there were substantial access and/or security issues throughout Tigray region, Metekel zone in Benishangul Gumz region, the Wallegas, the Hararges, West Guji and Guji zones in Oromia region. 

Through Village Assessment Survey, a total of 1.5 million returning IDPs were identified in 1,421 villages across 10 regions. A large majority of returning IDPs (1.4 million) were initially displaced due to conflict while 67,842 returning IDPs were initially displaced due to seasonal floods and 55,214 returning IDPs due to flash floods. The region hosting the largest number of returning IDPs was Oromia region with 714,493 returning IDPs, followed by Somali region with 406,830 returning IDPs.