International food aid officials say inflation and rising global food prices, combined with the normal holiday demand for chicken, sent the price soaring from about US$5 (€3.60) for a live bird last year to more than $8 (€5.75) in many places.

Tikunesh Berehanu, 53, a house cleaner in the capital, Addis Ababa, said she shelled out the equivalent of about US$7 to celebrate the start of the Ethiopian year 2001, which began at 6 a.m. under the nation's unique, Coptic Christianity-based calendar.

"It was really expensive, but I do not want my kids to be disappointed, as we are always used to celebrating the New Year this way," Berehanu said.

Wede Egegu, a 56-year-old government telecom worker, beat the crowd by buying her chicken a week early, for about US$6 (€4.31). Since then, prices increased to US$8.50 (€6.10), she said.

Some 4.6 million Ethiopians, about 6% of the population, need help obtaining basic foods because of a drought that began this year. The United Nations' World Food Program has sent 197,000 metric tons of food including cereals, pulses, vegetable oil, sugar and salt since the crisis started.