MOGADISHU, Somalia, July 2 (UPI) -- Millions of people in Somalia and Ethiopia will need food aid unless a severe drought in Africa ends soon, U.N. officials said.
Relief officials say that in Somalia the lack of a stable government, inflation of the currency and rising food prices worldwide are contributing to widespread hunger, the Washington Post reports. They predict almost half the country's population, about 3.5 million people, could be dependent on international relief by the end of the year.
Many of the same factors are contributing to starvation in neighboring Ethiopia. The International Medical Corps said that 3.4 million people in the southern and eastern regions already need food assistance.
U.N. officials say that famine could be widespread in the Horn of Africa soon.
Doctors Without Borders said that in a Somali refugee settlement outside Mogadishu the number of children in the later stages of malnutrition has quadrupled recently.
"Since May, the numbers have gone through the roof," said Susan Sandars, a Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman.
