Ethiopia: Full-blown emergency threatens Somali region, UN warns

A full-blown emergency is threatening Ethiopia’s Somali region, the UN warned on Thursday. Wells are drying up and malnutrition is beginning to set in, according to a joint UN rapid-assessment team sent to monitor the crisis. Somali region officials said last week that panic was beginning to set in among communities who fear they might suffer on a scale like that of the 2000 drought in the same region. In that year, an estimated 50,000 people died, mainly from measles.