Ethiopia is seeking International Monetary Fund financing to provide food for its people after the worst drought in four decades and a civil war curbed farm production.
“Ethiopian authorities have indicated an interest in accessing the IMF’s food shock window,” the fund said in an emailed response to queries, without providing more details. More than 20 million Ethiopians, including people who fled their homes because of conflict in the country’s northern Tigray region, don’t have enough to eat, according to the World Food Programme.
The IMF estimates that at least 123 million people in Africa — 12% of the region’s population — will be unable to meet their minimum food needs, 28 million more than just two years ago. The impact of severe drought across several countries has been compounded by Russia’s war with Ukraine, which curbed exports of foods such as wheat and inflated prices.
Ethiopia last year sought a program with the IMF that will help it restructure about $30 billion of foreign debt.
Source: Bloomberg
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