US to Deploy Disaster Assistance Response Team to Ethiopia

The United States is deploying a team of disaster response specialists to Ethiopia to avert the worst impact of a drought that has stricken the country, USAID Administrator Gayle Smith told reporters on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States began responding to the disaster in the fall of 2015, and now more than 10 million people are in need as a result of the drought in Ethiopia, Smith noted.

"We [the United States] are announcing today that we are going to… deploy what we call a Disaster Assistance Response Team [to Ethiopia]," Smith stated. "This is a group of experts that allows us to take a response that has been robust to date, but to accelerate and expand it."

Ethiopia is suffering from losses to livestock and growing signs of malnutrition in the result of the drought.

The UN estimates that $268 million in funding for Ethiopia is urgently needed over the next three months, Smith added.

"If we move very quickly we can avert the worst impacts of this drought," she claimed.

The United States to date has donated $500 million to address the disaster and is moving $4 million worth of seeds so farmers are ready for planting season.