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Andrew Mitchell: "Britain is putting its shoulder to the wheel... to stop this becoming a catastrophe"
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has urged the global community to help people in drought-hit east Africa to avoid a "catastrophe".
It comes as the UK pledged £52.25m in emergency aid to help millions of people affected by the disaster.Mr Mitchell, who is visiting Kenya, said the money would be used there, as well as in Somalia and Ethiopia.
The World Food Programme estimates 10 million people are affected by the worst drought in over half a century.
And the United Nation's Children's Fund believes about two million young people are malnourished.
The international development secretary said the situation was "getting worse" and urged the international community to do more.
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Until very recently, helping them had been very difficult indeed. The Islamic militants of al-Shabaab, who control most of the south and the centre of the country, have only recently lifted their ban on outside aid agencies operating in their areas.
Children's fund Unicef has airlifted food to Baidoa, north-west of the capital, for the first time in years. The Red Cross is opening 10 new feeding centres in the Afgoye corridor, near the capital. And medical charity MSF is providing nutrition to children at a spontaneously formed camp of about 5,000 people at Jilib, on the Juba river.
It shows that aid can now get through to areas controlled by Islamists that were, until very recently, out of bounds to the aid agencies.
Analysis
Providing aid inside Somalia is now a major priority. The UN's refugee agency estimates that nearly one-and-a-half million Somalis have been forced from their homes and are internally displaced by the drought.Until very recently, helping them had been very difficult indeed. The Islamic militants of al-Shabaab, who control most of the south and the centre of the country, have only recently lifted their ban on outside aid agencies operating in their areas.
Children's fund Unicef has airlifted food to Baidoa, north-west of the capital, for the first time in years. The Red Cross is opening 10 new feeding centres in the Afgoye corridor, near the capital. And medical charity MSF is providing nutrition to children at a spontaneously formed camp of about 5,000 people at Jilib, on the Juba river.
It shows that aid can now get through to areas controlled by Islamists that were, until very recently, out of bounds to the aid agencies.
Mr Mitchell is currently visiting the Dadaab camp in Kenya, which is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet.
He estimates that there are about 400,000 people in the camp.He said: "We need everyone who can help from across the world now to make sure they focus on this developing crisis here to stop it becoming a catastrophe. There is an emergency developing of profound proportions.
"Britain, as always, has shown huge generosity and is in a leadership position to try and resolve this crisis. We need others to do so too. We need the whole of the international community now to bend every sinew to help these poor people here who are in a desperate condition."
Mr Mitchell said the situation is particularly devastating in Somalia, where families already have to cope with living in one of the most insecure countries in the world.
"More than 3,000 people every day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children," he said.
"The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia."
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