350,000 newborns expected in Ethiopia's hunger peak season-Charity group

Save the Children, estimates some 350,000 newborns are expected to be born in drought-affected communities in the next six months when Ethiopia’s ‘hunger season’ peaks.

Ethiopia is on the verge of experiencing the worst drought in 50 years, a charity group, has warned.

“This is a code red emergency and it needs to be treated like one, yet I have never seen such a small response to a drought of this magnitude from the U.N. or the international community”, Save the Children’s country director John Graham told Reuters news agency.

The group warns that the east African country,Ethiopia, would experience severe drought that would drastically impact on food production by August.

This comes ahead of the Africa Union Summit in Addis Ababa beginning, Monday January 26 with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon expected to address the heads of state.

Most of the farmers who make up the economic backbone of the country’s 96 million rely on rain-fed farming system. But failed rains during the summer and spring seasons have led to severe water and food shortages.

The weather phenomenon, El Nino, which began in 2015 and causes extreme weather conditions like heat, heavy rains and flooding, has made matters worse. The severe drought has left an estimated 10.1 million people in need of food aid.

Save the Children currently handles two global humanitarian crisis at the organisation’s highest level of emergency,the on-going war in Syria, and the drought in Ethiopia.

The charity group works in over 60 of the worst drought-affected districts in Ethiopia, providing food, water, medicine and crucial support to families who have lost their incomes.

According to them, International Community needs to increase funding towards the $1.4 billion drought appeal.