300,000 children will die from starvation, warns UN
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.
"That's one tsunami every year," Mr Ljungqvist said.
Drought as well as delays in distributing food and cash have contributed to growing malnutrition, said Simon Mechale, head of the Ethiopian government's emergency arm.
A UN report in October also cited government failure to deal with population growth, slow economic growth and environmental degradation as causes of the food crisis.
In a new appeal for humanitarian aid, Mr Mechale said the Horn of Africa nation needs E39m in addition to the E210m it asked for late last year. Donors so far have provided only E79m.
The money is to be used for two programmes one to provide emergency food aid to about 3.8 million people, and the other to help 5.2 million people become less dependent on aid.
"The cry for help has a familiar ring," said Georgia Shaver, head of the World Food Programme in Ethiopia.
"The situation is not good, and I don't think we should underestimate it. Many children will surely die if action is not taken."
Separately, Ethiopia is struggling to deal with the devastation from floods that hit eastern Ethiopia on April 23.
Heavy rains were continuing to hamper relief efforts, said Remedan Haji Ahmed, head of the government's emergency response in the area.
Yesterday, the death toll from the floods rose to 154, he said.
"There are still large areas that are cut off and now we are getting outbreaks of diseases like malaria and diarrhoea," Mr Haji said.
The floods began when the Wabe Shebelle river burst its banks in the Somali region, which usually suffers severe droughts and little rainfall.
