GENEVA, Switzerland, May 15 (UPI) -- Late rains will not ease the plight of thousands of East African children that may die as a result of a six-month drought, the United Nations said Monday.
The U.N. Children's Fund said about 8 million people spread throughout Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Djibouti are in dire need of food aid after rainfall shortages devastated crops and livestock in the worst drought to hit the region in five years.
UNICEF also said 1.6 million children under the age of 5 are in jeopardy.
Keith McKenzie, the agency's special advisor for the Horn of Africa, said roughly 40,000 children are already severely malnourished at a news conference at U.N. headquarters in Geneva.
McKenzie said insufficient spring rains have made it hard to predict the coming harvest, while dead animals have contaminated vital water sources leading to endemic malaria and cholera amongst the very poor.
UNICEF has asked for $81 million in funding for 2006 humanitarian programs across the region but has thus far received only $54 million.
