During a session last week, Parliament approved a proposed additional budget of 122 billion Br for the fiscal year. Of the 309 MPs in attendance during the session, nine voted against while seven abstained. The majority of the funds, around 90 billion Br, is earmarked for the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), which has been engaged in the militarised conflict in the country's north for well over a year. Food assistance accounts for eight billion Birr of the supplementary budget while an equivalent amount is being held as a contingency budget. Of the remainder, five billion Birr has been allotted for the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by the civil war and two billion Birr will go to the rehabilitation of irrigation dams at state-owned sugar estates. Parliament had approved a 561 billion Br federal budget for the fiscal year last July.
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