Drought kills nearly 7 mln livestock in Ethiopia: UN

ADDIS ABABA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations said Monday that ongoing drought in several parts of Ethiopia have killed around 6.8 million livestock.

In its latest Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan report, FAO said the massive livestock losses happened in the country's Oromia, Somali and Southern regions.

"These drought impacts have rippled into crop production, income loss, high levels of malnutrition and food insecurity," the FAO report disclosed.

Earlier this year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that catastrophic consequences of the multi-year drought will continue in 2023 in the Horn of Africa region, leaving communities in urgent need of assistance.

The WMO report stated that parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia will continue to have the hardest drought-hit areas in the Horn of Africa region throughout 2023.

On a positive note, the FAO report said the peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front in November 2022, which ended a two-year conflict, has opened an opportunity for millions of people in northern Ethiopia to resume their livelihoods.

However, the report said, conflict-affected households still have severely constrained access to farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, which continues to disrupt their agricultural activities.