Ethiopia — Flow Monitoring Dashboard 12 (September 2020)

In September 2020, a total of 10,414* movements were observed across Ethiopia’s six flow monitoring points (FMPs). This represents a 32% increase in daily average movement in comparison with August 2020 when an average of 237 movements per day were observed, however it is still 8% lower than the average daily movement in February, prior to the emergence of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Ethiopia in March 2020. The average daily movement has been impacted by measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the region for more than six months. However, migration trends seem to be changing whereby there have been steady increases in movements since June 2020.

Following the ease of COVID-19-related movement restrictions in the region, outgoing movement during September has continued to be significantly higher (75%) than incoming movement (2%) Significantly, the percentage of outgoing versus incoming movements have rebalanced to ratios observed before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Ethiopia. A total of 7,803 outgoing movements were observed of which 4,492 (58%) were going to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and 1,074 (14%) intended to go to Djibouti. 2,611 incoming movements were observed, of which 1,538 (59%) had originated from Sudan. It should be noted that most of these movements (1,502) were Ethiopian nationals who were likely returning home.