(The Reporter) Oxfam’s report, which came out a little earlier, put the number of people who need emergency assistance at over 13 million.

The Ethiopian government has issued a statement saying that Oxfam had inflated the numbers. “The ongoing safety net program has 7.5 million beneficiaries. Now, what the latest report from Oxfam did is add 7.5 million beneficiaries to the actual people who are in need of emergency food to claim that 13.7 million people are in need of emergency of assistance food,” said Tamirat Tsige, spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Prime Minister Meles, during his firsts appearance before parliament this Ethiopian year accused ’industry actors’ ranging from food producers to shipping companies and even local transporters, of forging a campaign to deliberately inflate the number of people in need of emergency food assistance.

Despite the lack of agreement on the number of people in need of emergency assistance, the reality remains that millions of people are faced with severe food insecurities. (read more)