300,000 children will die from starvation, warns UN

AS many as 300,000 Ethiopian children will die from malnutrition this year if donors do not come forward with food aid and funds, a UN official said yesterday.

The UN children's agency urgently needs E10 million in the next 60 days to feed about 170,000 of those who are starving to death, said Bjorn Ljungqvist, the agency's head in Ethiopia.

He said "Three hundred thousand children are dying every year from poor nutrition or nutrition-related causes in Ethiopia.