Starvation warning in Tajikistan

The Red Cross has warned of a wave of deaths from starvation in Tajikistan in the next few months because of drought.

A Red Cross spokesman Denis McClean said they had only received ten per-cent of funds needed to help around two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand people affected by the drought, and as a result, food distribution could not start until January.

Tajikistan is one of the Central Asian countries most affected by drought. Another spokesman said the shortages threatened an outbreak of contagious diseases in particularly critical areas of Leninabad and the southern region of Khatlon.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service