Ethiopian gov't working to ensure no fatalities from drought

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-11 00:05:35|Editor: huaxia
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ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian government is working hard to ensure that no fatalities occur as a result of El-Nino induced drought that has left 7.8 million Ethiopians in need of food aid.

The statement was made on Thursday by Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia during a discussion with international development partners in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

"The El-Nino induced drought has affected severely in particular Ethiopia's pastoralist dominated Eastern regions, with the government providing animal feed and emergency food aid to needy people to prevent from the drought getting worse," he says.

The International development partners on their part promised to help the Ethiopian government cope with the drought that aid agencies say is the most severe in decades.

Early this week the Ethiopian government announced that it expects the number of Ethiopians needing food aid from the current 7.8 million to 8.5 million people.

The increase in the number of needy Ethiopians since the beginning of the year will be the 4th revision as a prolonged drought worsened by El-Nino weather condition continues to severely affect southern and eastern parts of Ethiopia.

In the beginning of 2017, the Ethiopian government had put the number of Ethiopians in need of food aid at 5.6 million, shortly later revised to 7.2 million and in June yet again increased to 7.8 million. Enditem

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