The government has announced that the war in northern Ethiopia has caused more than 1.5 trillion birr in damages and losses.
The Ministry of Finance has announced that, the war that has been going on for two years in the northern areas of Ethiopia, especially in the Tigray region, and in some other areas, damages and losses estimated at more than 1.5 trillion birr (28 billion USD) have been caused to the country.
Presenting the Ministry of Finance’s nine-month performance report to the House of Representatives, Minister Ahmed Shede said that, his institution had conducted a Damage and Needs Assessment regarding the damage caused by the war in northern Ethiopia and the need for reconstruction.
Based on the findings of the study, Ethiopia lost $28 billion.
According to the information in the report submitted to the council, “22 billion dollars or 20.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) damage” has been reached.
The report indicates that, the economic loss due to this has reached “six billion dollars or 5.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).”
According to the reporter news paper, one third of the total population in the areas where there was conflict and war were directly affected by the war.
And also three million of the citizens have fallen into extreme poverty due to the war.
The amount of damage set by the minister’s report is equal to the total foreign debt that Ethiopia borrowed from foreign lenders for economic development in the last several years and has not returned.
20 billion dollars are needed to reverse the damage caused by the war and to return to the situation before the war.
