China hailed for Ethiopia help

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The UN World Food Program and Ethiopia have hailed China's humanitarian support to drought-affected people and refugees in the East African country.

This came on Tuesday during a ceremony organized for the handover of China's fourth round of humanitarian donations to Ethiopia at WFP office in the country's capital Addis Ababa.

The latest contribution, which amounts to $6 million, will be used to assist refugees and those affected by drought.

China has so far provided emergency aid to Ethiopia totaling $36.6 million, making it the third largest food aid contributor in the country.

In his remarks during the ceremony, Samir Wanmali, WFP Acting Country Director in Ethiopia, said that the world has entered an era where Asia and Africa have become much more important players, and China is an important partner of WFP and Ethiopia.

The WFP and the UN Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, last week appealed for $80 million to provide food assistance to refugees in Ethiopia.

Speaking to reporters, the WFP Acting Country Director commended China for its swift response to the call.

"China is very important partner for Ethiopian government and very important for WFP, and we are very proud to be part of a partnership, a bigger partnership between two very important countries in the world," he said.

Urging all international partners to show solidarity as the Chinese have with Ethiopia, the acting director said: "I hope other donors and partners will take the Chinese example as a lead and step forward to support the Ethiopian government in this current time."

Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's Commissioner for National Disaster Risk Management, also commended China for its support to the efforts of drought response in Ethiopia.

"I would like to thank the people and government of China for your four rounds of support to Ethiopia over the last years and for the drought response that we are working on together," he said.

"Your contribution is so immense. It is not forgettable by the government of Ethiopia and the people of Ethiopia."

The commissioner added he believed the spirit of collaboration between Ethiopia and China would continue in the future and only grow stronger.

Since 2015, Ethiopia has been suffering from the worst El-Nino-induced drought in the past half century, said Tan Jian, Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, adding that it also hosts the second largest number of refugees in Africa, resulting from large influx of refugees to the country due to instability and conflicts in neighboring countries.

The ambassador said the contribution from his country is a testimony of China's solidarity with Ethiopia.

"China is a member of the international community and is ready and willing to extend our support within our ability; our support is in the framework of the South-South cooperation.

"China is not a developed country, but China has been very active in contacting those countries in suffer of natural disasters," he said.

Xinhua