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International charities have a stark warning about a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia. The North African country has been by its worst drought for 50 years. It is widely expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will out unless more funds can be . John Graham, the head of the charity Save the Children in Ethiopia, : "The international community just three weeks to provide $245 million in emergency food aid to help a potentially catastrophic escalation in severe malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not in time, there no question that there will a critical fracture in the food aid supply pipeline."

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous country. It no stranger to natural disasters of this kind. Famine over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest drought was on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has drought and flooding across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the age of five will suffer from severe malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham that, "the window for action is rapidly " as it can four months to food aid and it into the landlocked country.