Reports have emerged that children in Ethiopia are now at great risk of dying, following the severe drought that has hit the Afar region of Ethiopia.
According to a woman who was simply identified as Zahara Abdu:

For about five months now, we have been sleeping on the floor at this centre. We fear that our children are at risk from the cold and diseases....I came here because we had had no rain for almost three years; our livestock died, we had no food,no milk, nothing.

The official said most of the 68,400 residents of 13 kebeles in Erebti woreda (district) had been affected by drought although those in Haitan and Aleyta were the worst affected.

Afar is a semi-arid region inhabited mostly by pastoralists who depend on livestock for survival. Residents said poor rainfall in the past six to 10 years had led to serious drought.

Some of the displaced families have sought refuge at the farmers’ training centre in Erebti while others are living in tarpaulin shelters erected nearby.

Since their arrival, the villagers said, they had received sorghum rations from local government authorities but no salt, cooking oil, pulses or non-food aid such as blankets and jerry cans. Some families were living in makeshift shelters near the training centre.

Another villager from Haitan, who declined to be named,said they had written to the local authorities to speed up relief food distribution but had not had received anything since September.

The food was provided by the government and humanitarian partners under an ongoing safety-net programme for existing vulnerable communities.

This is not the first time the country will be experiencing extreme drought and famine. Further reports available at irinnews