Ethiopia rejects hunger warning

An Ethiopian minister has denied reports that millions of people need urgent food aid after failed rains.

Ethiopia has been extremely sensitive to images showing its people as starving since the famine of 1984-5.

He admitted that 5.7 million people were currently getting food aid but argued that “in the Ethiopian context, there is no hunger, no famine” and that the situation was not as bad as in recent years. “The government is taking action to mitigate the problems,” he said.

Aid agency Oxfam recently warned that drought had hit parts of East Africa for the sixth year in a row. Oxfam said Somalia’s drought was the worst for 20 years, and November rainfall was less than 5% of normal in parts of Kenya and Ethiopia.

The UN has already said it is aiming to feed 20 million people in East Africa over the next six months.

BBC