Poor Ethiopia seeks additional $2.5 billion to rebuild war

Addis Ababa, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Ethiopia is looking to pass a supplementary budget of 122 billion bir ($2.5 billion) to help finance programs to rebuild war-ravaged areas and provide humanitarian aid, the finance ministry said. said on Thursday.

The budget is much larger in the heavily indebted country than previously reported. Government-affiliated media outlet Fana said on Monday that the government is seeking a “supplemental budget of $102 million to be used to rehabilitate those affected by war and conflict”.

“The additional budget will be spent on country’s security, humanitarian aid… and other essential government works,” the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.

The request would have to be approved by Parliament, which is expected to give its nod, but the ministry did not specify how the money would be raised.

The Tigre People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government and its allies have been at war for more than a year. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the ongoing conflict.

Humanitarian activists are among those who have suffered the brunt of the conflict.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said in a statement on Thursday that one of its staff members had been killed in northern Ethiopia, but gave no details.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi tweeted that a staff member was killed on 28 December.

Reporting by Addis Ababa Newsrun; Written by Ilyas Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Nick McPhee

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