Ethiopia requires urgent assistance to feed over 12 million people facing food shortages next year after rains failed in the last two seasons, a US famine warning unit said today.
Eastern and southern Ethiopia were hit especially hard by a drought, that resulted in loss of pastoral land and water availability critical to the survival of humans and livestock.
"The number of people requiring assistance could increase from the current 7.8 million to up to over 12 million in 2005," the Famine Early Warning System Network said in its latest monthly report.
The report said the available food in the country would last until the end of this month and about 1.2 million tonnes of food were needed to avert the shortage.
The areas requiring immediate help were southern and eastern Tigray and the lowlands of Oromia region.
In October, a UN assessment team at Ethiopia's southern Somali region said food aid was not reaching villages in adequate supplies, if at all, and many regions were rarely targeted.
Last year, Ethiopia was hit by a serious food crisis that left 13 million people dependent on food-handouts. Fifty thousand people died of disease after a drought in 2000.