Breaking News English

International charities have issued a [stork / stark] warning about a looming humanitarian [catastrophe / catastrophic] in Ethiopia. The North African country has been hit by its [worse / worst] drought for 50 years. It is [widely / width] expected that emergency food aid for 10 million Ethiopians will run out unless more funds can be found. John Graham, the head of the [clarity / charity] Save the Children in Ethiopia, said: "The international community has just three weeks to [providing / provide] $245 million [in / on] emergency food aid to help prevent a potentially catastrophic [escalation / escalator] in severe malnutrition cases." He added that: "If these emergency funds do not arrive in time, there is no [answer / question] that there will be a critical fracture in the food aid [supple / supply] pipeline."

Ethiopia is Africa’s second most [populate / populous] country. It is no [stranger / stronger] to natural disasters of this [kindly / kind] . Famine killed over one million Ethiopians in 1984. The latest [draught / drought] was brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, which has caused drought and [flooding / flooded] across much of Africa. Ethiopia is one of the countries hardest hit. Charities say that over 400,000 Ethiopian children under the [aged / age] of five will suffer from [several / severe] malnutrition this year. In addition, 1.7 million under-fives, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers will [need / needy] treatment for malnutrition. Mr Graham warned that, "the [window / hatch] for action is rapidly closing" as it can take four months to buy food aid and transport it into the [unlocked / landlocked] country.