UN pleads for food as drought grips Kenya

The United Nations food agency will run out of the supplies it needs to keep 3.5 million drought-stricken Kenyans alive because it has received just over a tenth of the required funding, officials said yesterday.

The situation in El Wak and other parts of Kenya was 'as bad as it gets', said James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme. 'There is just no alternative if lives are going to be saved - the world has to provide food,' he said.

Dozens of people are reported to have died from hunger, and chronic malnutrition is widespread in north-eastern and eastern Kenya, but the government has not given any figures, even though it has declared the situation a famine.

The drought has turned a swathe of eastern Africa into a dustbowl and left almost 12 million people dependent on aid, the UN said. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared a national emergency and appealed for foreign assistance.

UN pleads for food as drought grips Kenya