The number of people in need of food aid in Ethiopia's drought-hit regions has surged to 7.7 million, over two million more than an estimate earlier this year, state media reported Friday.

The National Disaster Risk Management Commission said in January that failed rains would leave 5.6 million people in need of emergency food this year in three of the country's nine regions: Oromia, Amhara and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region.

Public relations director Ababe Zewdie told the state-run Ethiopian News Agency that cold snaps as well as localised flooding in some areas have further decimated what crops had managed to grow, causing them to revise upwards their estimates.

"Over $742 million (679 million euros) is needed to support the people affected by drought and more than 432,000 tonnes of additional food up until early July," the news agency reported.

Ethiopia is prone to droughts, and the lack of rains in the country's highlands forced 10.2 million people to seek food assistance last year.

The United Nations has warned that this year's drought in East Africa could lead to 17 million people going hungry across the region.

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Indian minister ridiculed as bizarre drought plot backfires
New Delhi (AFP) April 24, 2017
An Indian politician who attempted to cover a dam in sheets of polystyrene has been left red-faced after his bizarre water-saving scheme backfired. Tamil Nadu state minister Sellur K Raju waded into the dam with dozens of sheets of polystyrene, convinced they could help reduce water evaporation in the drought-stricken state. But the noble yet puzzling effort went belly-up almost immediat ... read more

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