Children face mass death

Up to 300,000 Ethiopian children will die from malnutrition this year unless urgent food and aid is given, the United Nations has warned. In the next 60 days alone, almost £7m is needed to save 170,000 children on the edge of death from starvation, it said.

The head of the UN relief effort in Ethiopia said 300,000 children were dying from malnutrition each year. Bjorn Ljunqvist said: "That's one tsunami every year, Ethiopia is being hit by a [South Asian] tsunami disaster every year."

The UN is calling on donor countries to speed up and fulfil their pledges. Although countries have expressed a need to do more to help nations facing starvation crises at recent meetings, no firm action has been agreed. The UN says drought and delays in distributing food and cash have contributed to the growing problem in Ethiopia