(Bloomberg) -- Ethiopians planted 353 million trees in 12 hours, part of a 4 billion tree-planting campaign to fight deforestation and climate change, Minister for Innovation and Technology Getahun Mekuria said.
A world record was set, according to Mekuria, as Ethiopians heeded Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ambitious plan to roll back years of drought and scanty rains that the United Nations says has left some 3.8 million people in immediate need for assistance.
The Horn of Africa nation started rationing power on May 17 due to low-water levels at the Gibe 3 hydro-electric dam and discontinued power export to neighboring Sudan and Djibouti.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with 100 million people, had forest cover of just 14% of its territory in 2018, according to the United Nations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Samuel Gebre in Abidjan at sgebre@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu, Andre Janse van Vuuren
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