Addis Ababa – UN agencies say the number of Ethiopians who will need food aid by the end of this year has surged by more than 1.5 million from earlier estimates due to failed rains.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said this in a statement on Monday.
“Ethiopia needs an extra 230 million dollars from donors to secure aid for a total of 4.5 million people now projected to require assistance this year.
“The country of 96 million people is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, but failed rains have devastating consequences for food supplies, ‘’ it said.
David Conte, UNOCHA’s acting head of office in Ethiopia said the rains were much worse than the National Meteorology Agency predicted at the beginning of the year.
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Food insecurity increased and malnutrition rose as a result,” Conte added.
According to the statement, areas normally producing surplus food are also affected by shortages; lack of water has decreased livestock production and causing livestock deaths in other pastoralist areas.
Meteorologists have warned that the El Nino weather phenomenon, marked by a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, was now well established and continued to strengthen.
Models indicate that sea-surface temperature anomalies in the central Pacific Ocean are set to climb to the highest in 19 years.
The El Nino can lead to scorching weather across Asia and east Africa but heavy rains and floods in South America.
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