The United Nations has expressed concern over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ethiopia, which has seen no immediate infusion of resources to carry out life-saving interventions.
The current situation is the worst since the major humanitarian crisis of 2003, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday.
Some 8 million Ethiopians are chronically food insecure and at least 3.4 million are in need of emergency food relief, figures that are likely to rise, it added.
UNICEF estimates about 176,000 children in the east African nation are in need of urgent therapeutic care for severe malnutrition, and up to 6 million children aged under five are living in impoverished, drought-prone districts that require urgent preventive health and nutrition interventions.
"It is extremely unfortunate that the combined effects of drought, food price hikes and insufficient resources for preventive measures have resulted in an emergency that jeopardizes child survival gains in Ethiopia," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF's representative in Ethiopia.
Source: Xinhua
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