https://youtu.be/Tws10QCxud8

More than 15 million people in Ethiopia will be in need of food aid by the beginning of 2016 as the East African nation come face to face with the worst drought since 1984, the united Nations has warned.

Earlier in October, the Ethiopian government announced that about 8.2 million people needed of food aid, up from an estimated 4.6 million in August. A further 7.5 million were already receiving cash and food under the Productive Safety Net Programme.

The drought which has just begun is expected to get worse in coming months and has conjured up memories of famine in the mid 80’s that saw global celebrities come together for one of the largest charity event ever seen to help starving people in Ethiopia.

“Although this drought has just started, it’s going to get worse. It’s already really severe. Some people have died of hunger. Others are sick in their beds,” Abera Weldu, 60, a resident of one of the worst hit villages in northern Ethiopia, told BBC News.

“Right now it’s just like 1984,” he added.

Although the country of 93 million people has made huge strides in economic growth over the last decade, growing by over 8 percent year after year, the horn of Africa nation might need another round of humanitarian aid to help its citizens, mostly in the northern part, survive the drought.

More than 80 per cent of Ethiopia’s population works in agriculture and the drought has left them vulnerable. The failure of two consecutive rainy seasons  has devastated livelihoods and greatly increased malnutrition rates in six Ethiopian regions, The Irish Times reported.