The Ethiopian government and aid groups on Monday lamented slow donor response to the Horn of Africa nation, where an acute drought has affected at least 1.7 million people, officials said.
Wodayehu Belew, an official with the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency said, there was a huge shortfall on non-food items although an appeal was made four months ago.
"On the non-food items, around 82 percent is still missing. This is worrying, even more so considering we are now in April, four months since we made our appeal to the donors," Wodayehu said.
So far, only 19 million dollars (16 million euros) of the 111 million dollars (92 million euros) needed for water and food distribution have been received, according to the governmemt and the United Nations.
"If resources are not made available quickly, we will be unable to feed the malnourished children, and we fear they might start to die," said Paul Hebert, head of UN humanitarian affairs in Ethiopia.
"We have already identified critical malnutrition rates in the Somali region, with 20 percent of malnourished children. This is more than the 10 percent considered as serious malnutrition problems," he added.
Herbert said the food currently available would only last until the end of next month if donors did not contribute for new stocks.
The UN children's agency has warned that the current famine ravaging the Horn of Africa nation risks claiming as many lives as in 2002, when some 100,000 succumbed to famine, if donors fail to respond quickly to the situation.
