Africa Business Radio

A UN spokesman says the Ethiopian government has released about half of the UN's contracted aid drivers arrested last week. Farhan Haq says on Monday that 34 drivers had been released but 36 others were still being detained. He hoped that the remaining contract workers and 10 UN national staff arrested by the authorities on Friday would be freed. The UN spokesman also announced that the UN had released $40m (£29.8m) in emergency funds to Ethiopians. The spokesman says the funds will help scale up emergency operations in Ethiopia's conflict-affected northern regions and support early response to the drought in southern Ethiopia.