The UK is to give £52.25m in emergency aid to help millions of drought victims in the Horn of Africa.
Ahead of a visit to Kenya, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the money would be used in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.The World Food Programme estimates 10 million people are affected by the worst drought in over half a century.
Mr Mitchell said the situation was "getting worse" and urged the international community to do more.
The Dadaab camps in Kenya are overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet.
The United Nation's Children's Fund estimates two million young people are malnourished.
The UK's aid package comes after a joint charity appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) saw over £13m raised in a week.
The Department for International Development (DFID) said the money would help:
- 500,000 people in Somalia, including treatment for nearly 70,000 acutely malnourished children
- Over 130,000 people in the Dadaab camps to help provide them with clean drinking water and health care
- 100,000 people in Dolo Ado refugee camps in Ethiopia to provide them with shelter and clean drinking water as well as targeted treatment of starving children
- 300,000 Kenyans, including special rations to prevent malnutrition in children under the age of five and breastfeeding mothers.
"But the situation is getting worse - and 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.
"The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia."
In Kenya, Mr Mitchell is to meet the head of the DEC, Brendan Gormley, and Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children.
He will also meet Somalian refugees.
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