Ethiopia — National Displacement Report 9 (June — July 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. 

As of July 2021, a total of 4.17 million IDPs have been identified thus far across the country. Through Site Assessment (SA), a total of 2.07 million IDPs were identified in 1,580 sites across 10 regions in Ethiopia. Simultaenously, 2.1 million IDPs were also tracked through the Emergency Site Assessment (ESA) round 7 which is a monthly tool used to track internal displacement in Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions caused by the Northern Ethiopia Crisis. Of the total displaced population, the main causes of displacement were conflict which displaced 3.5 million IDPs (84%), drought which displaced 308,607 IDPs (7%), flash floods which displaced 157,522 IDPs (4%) and seasonal floods which displaced 112,469 IDPs (3%). 

Through Village Assessment Survey, a total of 1.3 million returning IDPs were identified in 1,180 villages across 10 regions. A large majority of returning IDPs (1.2 million) were initially displaced due to conflict while 56,280 returning IDPs were initially displaced due to seasonal floods and 55,039 returning IDPs due to flash floods. The region hosting the largest number of returning IDPs was Oromia region with 672,315 returning IDPs, followed by Somali region with 387,128 returning IDPs. However, please note that there were considerable access and/or security issues in Amhara, Benishangul Gumz, Oromia and Tigray regions which affacted the total displacement and return count.