A stark warning of a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Horn of Africa was issued by UK International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, today.
Experts say the area already faces a chronic food shortage which, without an adequate international response, could lead to a humanitarian crisis.
The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) is today responding to this crisis by announcing £39 million more in humanitarian assistance for the Horn of Africa.
£30 million will go to Ethiopia where which faces a very real threat of food shortages. Around 14 million people - around one in six - struggle to feed themselves. The funding is additional to £24 million emergency support already provided to Ethiopia in 2009.
An extra £9 million is being provided to help people in Kenya and Somalia. In Kenya, £5 million will go to UNICEF and other organisations to help those who need it most, especially acutely malnourished children. In Somalia, £4 million will also go towards helping the most vulnerable.
A number of factors have combined over the past two years to leave Ethiopia short of food. These include unpredictable global food price inflation and the repeated failure of rains which are essential for agricultural production. If the forthcoming harvest fails, it will lead to a worsening humanitarian situation into 2010.
The UK is announcing £30 million now to help provide emergency humanitarian support to over six million people in Ethiopia until the end of the 2009. and to help pre-proposition food and nutritional supplies for 2010. Another seven and a half million Ethiopians are already receiving help through the Productive Safety Net Programme, which provides food and cash payments in exchange for work, and aims to provide a more sustainable solution to food insecurity and hunger in Ethiopia. The UK is a major financier of the Safety Net programme.
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: "I am gravely concerned about the humanitarian situation unfolding in the Horn of Africa, which is why I am announcing £39 million more to provide emergency food, nutrition, water and sanitation.
"There is a real danger of a humanitarian disaster in the coming months if the international community stands by and does nothing. The time to act is now, and that is why the UK, world leaders, the Governments in the Horn of Africa, and the international community must come together and do everything they can to avert a disaster."
The additional £30m announced for Ethiopia today will be channelled through the UN World Food Programme, UNICEF and other non-governmental organisations.
Notes to editors
Estimates of the number of people in Ethiopia who need emergency food aid have risen steadily from 4.9 million in January 2009 to over six million now.
About a third of those in need of assistance live in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Others areas affected included Tigray, Oromiya, Amhara and Southern Nations and Nationalities Peoples region.
The announcement brings DFID's humanitarian contribution to Kenya to £15m in 2009. Other humanitarian partners DFID has already funded in 2009 include the UN agencies World Food Programme and UNHCR, and the international NGOs Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and Action Against Hunger.
The UK is also working with the Government to find longer-term solutions to Kenya's dependence on international humanitarian aid, providing more than £122 million over 10 years for social protection programmes such as hunger safety nets, mostly in the arid and semi-arid lands.