The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday said that Ethiopia's food security situation is expected to improve from October through January.

The WFP said in its latest food security and nutrition update that covered the East Africa region said, the number of people in crisis situation was projected to reduce from 8 million in September to 6.7 million in late November.

According to the WFP, the latest improvement in Ethiopia's food security situation is attributed to improved rains in south and southeast as well as the availability of summer seasonal harvests, which improves the access to food from own production and contributes to short-term price stabilization of cereal in the area.

The projected normal to above normal rains in pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihood zones of southeast Oromia is also expected to support regeneration of pasture and water conditions and improve households' access to milk, according to WFP.

Noting that localized floods are affecting livelihoods and limiting livestock access to grazing fields, the WFP, however, stressed that during February to June 2020, the number of food insecure is projected to increase to 8.5 million.

The latest figures from WFP also show that about 18.7 million people across East Africa are food insecure, which is a deterioration when compared to the level of 16.9 million in October 2018.