[Paris AFP in English 0225 GMT 1 Apr 92]

[Text] Addis Ababa, April 1 (AFP)--Ethiopian church groups have warned that their country is facing a major famine and said nine million Ethiopians were in need of relief.

The Joint Relief Partnership, which brings together the Ethiopian Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Churches, told a press conference on Monday [30 March] that several regions were in the grip of a severe drought.

It warned that the famine could prove as devastating as one in 1984 and 1985, in which 250,000 died.

People and livestock were beginning to perish in Ogaden, in the southeast, and Borneo in central Ethiopia, the church groups said.

Orthodox archbishop Abune Themoteos said world attention had been focussed on crises in the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and South Africa, and Ethiopia had been forgotten.

Church officials said pledges of international assistance so far would cover only one-third the country's needs.