Geneva - An appeal for 1.7 million dollars to provide emergency food aid to around 40,000 Ethiopians was launched Friday by the Red Cross.

A series of poor rains resulting in under-nourished cattle had sent livestock prices plummeting.

At the same time, inflation had soared and cereal prices rocketed by more than a fifth two years running, the Geneva-based International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.

"Thousands of people may face starvation in the coming months in the worst-case scenario but the situation is already critical for some 40,000 people," IFRC's food security officer in the region Kiflemariam Amdemariam said.

The money would provide food aid for severely-affected people in the Wolaita, Sidama, Moyale and Bale areas south of Addis Ababa for four months until the October harvest.

Further north, the Ethiopian Red Cross had also been distributing millions of litres of water and purification tablets in emergency drought preparedness programmes in East Harage and Afar. (dpa)