ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — A U.N. official says the number of Ethiopians needing emergency food aid has more than doubled.
World Food Program spokesman Barry Came says 9.6 million people need emergency food. This is more than twice the estimate of 4.6 million people released in June.
Came says the rise in Ethiopians needing food aid includes people not accounted for in previous assessments.
He said Monday that the increase comprises about 2 million residents of Ethiopia’s southeastern Somali region. The figure also includes 3.2 million people who had been covered by a plan intended to stave off chronic food shortages but now need emergency food aid.
Aid workers say this year’s drought is the worst since 2003.