THE United States is considering sending more food relief to Ethiopia to help avert a massive famine, but criticised the Addis Ababa government for continuing to spend money on war its with Eritrea while its people suffer. “The causes of the famine are clearly primarily a drought caused by three years without rain… had the resources of the country not been focused on a war that in our view is a needless war, there would have been more available to deal with this kind of problem,” US State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters. Ethiopian officials have rejected similar, previous criticism.