Ethiopia, humanitarian groups say food aid for 7.8 mln to run out
June 10, 2017
WARDER, Ethiopia, June 10 (Reuters) – Ethiopia will run out of emergency food aid for 7.8 million people hit by severe drought by the end of this month, the government and humanitarian groups said.
Successive failed rains blamed by meteorologists on fluctuations in ocean temperatures known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) have created a series of severe back-to-back droughts in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region.
In Ethiopia, the number of people now critically short of food is expected to rise by at least two million by next month, according to figures compiled by the government and its humanitarian partners.
Donors, international aid groups and the government say existing food aid for the current 7.8 million will run out as funds are critically short this year with Ethiopia receiving slightly more than half of the $930 million to meet requirements until July.
“We are in a dire situation,” John Aylieff, the World Food Programme’s representative in Ethiopia, said on Friday during a field trip to Warder in southeast Ethiopia, one of Ethiopia’s hardest-hit areas.
“We’ve got food running out nationally at the end of June. That means the 7.8 million people who are in need of humanitarian food assistance in Ethiopia will see that distribution cut abruptly at the end of June,” he added.
