London - The charity Save the Children warned yesterday that eight million Ethiopians are at risk of famine this year without massive food aid.
"The cumulative impact of droughts and crop failures is pushing more and more families into poverty and destitution," the London-based charity said in a statement. Successive poor rains were affecting many areas of the Horn of Africa country and the stop-and-go war with neighbouring Eritrea was exacerbating the problem by blocking access to ports through which food aid could transit, it said.