Millions need food

ADDIS ABABA: A government minister said yesterday that 7.8 million people in Ethiopia needed food assistance due to a prolonged drought worsened by the El Niño weather condition.

Communications Minister Negeri Lencho said the government had set aside $50 million (nearly R642m) for drought relief.

In the beginning of the year, the Ethiopian government had put the number at 5.6 million, but later revised it to 7.2 million.

“The Ethiopian government had anticipated the drought and as such is providing water and food to people, school feeding programmes to school students and animal feed to livestock.”

He admitted that other international crises were having some impact on the amount of aid the Ethiopian government was receiving. Xinhua –