Some 3.2 million Ethiopians have been in urgent need of food aid over the past month, a drastic rise from the previous month's 2.2 million, Xinhua quoted a statement posted Monday on the UN website as saying. "I am deeply concerned about the food security situation in Ethiopia, and the consequent increasing number of malnourished children, as a result of the current drought," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said in the statement. "We will need a rapid scaling up of resources, especially food and nutritional supplies, to make increased life-saving aid a reality," he added. UN humanitarian agencies said they are facing a shortfall of food aid valued at 147 million U.S. dollars. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said 6 million children under five are at risk of acute malnutrition. UNICEF needs 1,800 metric tons of ready-to-use therapeutic food for the coming three months for two regions alone, but it only has 6 metric tons now and is due to receive another 90 metric tons.
