More than 8.5 million people now need food assistance in Ethiopia following back-to-back droughts. This includes 3.3 million people in the Somali Region targeted to receive WFP’s relief assistance in Round 5 (of which 1.6 million are PSNP clients).  
Scarce water supplies have driven people from home areas and aggravated the spread of acute watery diarrhoea. In pastoralist, lowland areas, rains are only expected in October. Food from the Summer Meher harvest from highland areas is not expected to be available before the end of 2017. 
The Somali Region is the epicentre of the 2017 drought and the centre of WFP operations in Ethiopia. In August, the number in need of food relief in the region increased from 1.7 million to 3.3 million (60 percent of the population in the region). Thanks to recent donor contributions, WFP is now covering all needs, but requires additional resources to sustain this level of support through the end of 2017 and into the new year. 
Depending on needs and where markets functioning, WFP provides a combination of cash and food, WFP will provide nearly half a million people with cash transfers in the Somali Region.  

More than 8.5 million people now need food assistance in Ethiopia following back-to-back droughts. WFP is targeting 5.5 million people in Ethiopia with emergency food and cash assistance, including nutrition support for the most vulnerable and refugees.    
Thanks to generous contributions from donors, WFP will be able to restore full rations to all 600,000 refugees beginning from October.  
After weeks of delays, due to discussions with the Government of Ethiopia over transfer modalities in the Somali Region, food distributions as part of Round 5 of relief assistance to 93 woredas are currently ongoing.   

In July (Round 4), WFP was able to provide assistance for only 1 million people (of the usual 1.7 million people) in the Somali Region due to resource constraints. Monitoring reports show that rations in some areas were diluted.  
Field monitoring reports indicate that due to retargeting exercise in Round 4, distributions to some Food Distribution Points (FDPs) in the Somali Region was delayed by nine days. 
However, in the majority of the FDPs, food distribution was completed within 5 days of delivery. 
Increased needs after the failed rains have caused the food security in the region to further deteriorate. Generous support from donors has enabled WFP to scale up assistance to 3.3 million people in the Somali Region from August till December.  
Those receiving relief assistance for Round 5 includes an estimated 200,000 drought and conflict related IDPs.  

WFP’s moderate-acute-malnutrition (MAM) Targeted Supplementary Feeding Programme (TSF) supported 306,000 children aged 6-59 months and pregnant and nursing women in July.  
With food and nutrition security worsening in the Somali Region, WFP is initiating a Blanket Supplementary Feeding for three months for 400,000 children under five and to pregnant or nursing women in 45 woredas with the highest malnutrition rates. 

A total of 14,835 mt of assorted commodities were was distributed to of 588,000 refugees (96 percent of the target) in July.  
Refugee influxes from South Sudan have increased from about 100 a day in May to 175 a day in July. During the reporting period, an estimated 1,000 south Sudanese arrived in the South Omo Zone in southern Ethiopia. The number is expected to increase to 6,000 shortly, this is the first time that South Sudanese arrive in such a big number through South Omo. WFP is distributing High Energy Biscuits to all new arrivals.  
In July, funding constraints forced WFP to reduce cereal rations by more than a third in most refugee camps, the second major cut in two years. Refugees also suffered from a one-third reduction in Super Cereal, which is used to treat malnutrition. Overall, each family received enough food to cover little more than two-thirds of the 2,100 kilocalories needed for a healthy diet. However, thanks to generous contributions from donors, WFP will be able to provide a full ration to all 600,000 refugees beginning from October.  

WFP presented its current development and ongoing activities in Ethiopia at the Ethio-Transport and Logistics International Exhibition in Addis Ababa from 18-20 August, 2017. The exhibition aimed at creating a link between actors of transport and logistics to enhance modern transport and logistics service delivery and promote new technologies.   

UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) continues to operate in the country. In August, UNHAS transported 540 people and 3,67 mt of cargo, supported 33 organizations and carried out 4 medical evacuations. 


