ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – More than eight million people need food aid in Ethiopia, a 5 percent rise from last year, due to a surge in violence that has triggered mass displacement as well as the lingering effects of past droughts, officials said on Thursday. The crisis has prompted an Ethiopian government appeal for $1.3 billion to provide emergency food and non-food assistance for 8.3 million people. Moreover, violence in many parts of the country have added to the burden,” said Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia’s commissioner of national disaster risk management. Some 7.9 million people were in need of food assistance in 2018 and 5.6 million the year before, requiring over $3 billion in humanitarian aid. Mitiku told reporters Ethiopia planned to spend over $107 million to cover the needs of this year’s impact from its own coffers.

Source: Ethiopian News March 07, 2019 15:11 UTC