Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Friday that drought and famine were the worst enemy his country had ever faced, as it struggles against devastatingly low rainfall.

Vast swathes of land stretching from southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya and Somalia are in the grip of a severe drought that has left 13 million people facing hunger.

As well as drought, Ethiopia, Africa's second most-populated country, is hit by a war between government forces and the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Army (TPLF) in the north of the country which has already left millions there in desperate need of aid.

"There has never been an enemy in history that has tested us as much as drought and starvation that recurs every 10 years," Abiy said in a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter.

"Famine has put a dark spot on our country's image... even though drought occurs naturally, famine is man-made," he added, blaming the inefficiency of Ethiopian agriculture.

More than six million people in drought-hit areas of eastern and southern Ethiopia will need "life-saving" assistance this year, the UN's emergency response agency warned in a report early last month.

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Baidoa: Crossroads of despair in drought-ravaged Somalia
Baidoa, Somalia (AFP) Feb 23, 2022
Under the blazing sun, Salado Adan Mohamed puts the finishing touches to her makeshift shelter, cobbled together from branches and fragments of discarded cloth. She has just arrived in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa, the last refuge for people fleeing the worst drought in the country in a decade. Along with her three children, the 26-year-old mother walked for five days "without eating" to make the 70-kilometre (43-mile) trek from her village to Baidoa. She settled in Muuri, one of ... read more