Millions at risk as Ethiopia reels from deadly drought

More than 10m people, including an estimated third of a million newborn babies, are at risk from Ethiopia’s worst drought in half a century, Save the Children has warned.

The charity has called on UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon to raise the growing humanitarian crisis when he addresses a meeting of the African Union in the country’s capital Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

The UK-based charity has warned that an El Nino-driven drought that started in June has left an estimated 10.1m people in need of food aid, more than three decades after scenes of starvation and death in Ethiopia first came to the attention of the West. The crisis is one of just two humanitarian crises in the world — the other is the civil war in Syria.