ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (PANA) – Ethiopia, battered by the effects of climate change and exceeding national hunger, launched an appeal on Tuesday for some 4.9 million people on the verge of starvation. State Minister for Agriculture Mitiku Kassa said the government requires emergency cash injections to plug a food gap while sustaining the livelihoods of an additional 7.57 million people on state-run food distribution

The appeal for US$ 454 million will help feed some 4.9 million people across the country, facing renewed threats from famine this year after a series of failed rains and poor harvests across the country.

The money is urgently required to finance the acquisition of cereals, edible oils, foods and non-food items and offering medical help to those in need, the minister said.

The authorities need some 591,000 metric tonnes of food aid.

The humanitarian appeal is meant to help save those facing acute starvation this year while a certain number of the food dependants, numbering about 7.57 million are also receiving funds from the government to meet food needs rise.

The government says some 1.5 million people, who had been reliant on state-run food programs were excluded from this year’s food distribution as a result of improved crop yields in western Ethiopia, where food production increased.

However, those on permanent government-operated food distribution appeared to have surged from 5 million in 2005 to 7.5 million in 2008.

The government says some 35,000 people, however, graduated from this food dependency.

“The only sustainable solution to reduce the emergency dependence is to increase agricultural food production,” the state minister in charge of disaster management and food security said.

The western part of the country produces the food that serves the urban population, including the capital, Addis Ababa.

The highest number of those in urgent need of food aid is in the Somali regional state, east of Ethiopia, where the number of those in need of urgent food aid has been computed at 1.55 million, followed by the Amhara state in the North.

Somali region, mostly inhabited by the pastoralists, has missed good rains for the past three years, leading to acute losses of animals and leaving most animals in poor physical condition, the minister said.

“The food aid distribution in the Somali region was most challenging, but now, we have improved the rate of distribution and 91 per cent of the food is now reaching the recipients,” Kassa told journalists at a news conference here.