ADDIS ABABA: More than eight million Ethiopian people are in dire need of food aid owing to violence that has triggered mass displacement compounded by the persistent effects of past droughts, officials said.

The crisis has prompted an Ethiopian government to make an appeal for $1.3 billion to provide emergency food and non-food assistance for its 8.3 million people.

The droughts induced by climate change has hit the country already devastated by chronic civil war.

Around 3 million people remain displaced in the Horn of Africa country of 100 million, according to the United Nations, largely due to a spate of ethnic clashes, mostly in the southwest and east, since last year.

The outburst of violence has overshadowed reforms initiated in late 2017 with mass releases of political prisoners that were intended to reduce tensions triggered by anti-government protests in 2015.

Some 7.9 million people were in need of food assistance in 2018 and 5.6 million the year before, requiring over $3 billion in humanitarian aid.