Violence in southern Ethiopia since June has forced more than 800,000 people to flee their homes and they need food and other aid, a report by the United Nations and the government said on Wednesday. The inter-ethnic violence erupted in April around 400 km south of the capital and in all more than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee, said the report that gave no details of casualties, Reuters reported. Traditional leaders encouraged the movement of people back to their homes after the initial fighting in April but many have fled again in June, the report said. “The security situation has been challenging despite the deployment of the Ethiopian Defense Forces in the area, with reports of continued destruction of houses, other assets and service infrastructure,” it read. Ethiopia is an ethnically diverse country of 100 million people. Diplomats told Reuters that more than 200 people were killed during last month’s violence but said the figure was an estimate because a lack of security made confirmation impossible. The fighting is one of several ethnic conflicts fueled by grievances over land in Ethiopia, Africa’s second largest country by population.
