JIJIGA, Ethiopia: Ethiopia has been accused of deliberately underestimating the scale of the deadly drought facing millions of its people, some of whom are being deprived of emergency food aid by the country's military.
The humanitarian crisis, caused by three years of failed rains, affects more than 4.6 million people, and the official number could jump to as high as 6.7million this week, The Times newspaper reported yesterday.
The UN says the real number at risk is more than 8 million, an estimate disputed by Addis Ababa, which is insisting on publishing a much lower figure.
"The figure has risen very substantially, maybe even doubled," said John Holmes, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, who visited Ethiopia this month, in comments reported by The Times...read more...
