Ethiopia Famine Appeal

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine worse than that of 1984 which killed nearly one million people and sparked a big international relief effort.

Famine: Ethiopia's Recurring Nightmare

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies renewed an appeal for aid, calling for £7.86m to alleviate drought suffering across Ethiopia, where much of the population already lives in abject poverty.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the BBC that some six million people already needed food aid and the number facing starvation could rise to 15 million early in the new year if international donors did not come to the country's aid.

"If the 1984 famine was a nightmare, then this will be too ghastly to contemplate," he said.

Mr Meles said it was "like living through a recurring nightmare."

The Ethiopian Government was already barely able to keep its people alive let alone supply adequate food, he said, and could not afford to buy in extra stocks itself.

Disaster Warning

Six million directly at threat but 15 million face famine in the new year. 2 million tonnes of food aid are required.

He predicted that the number of people who could be hit as a result of the new drought might be three times the number affected during the earlier famine.