The number of people threatened by famine in drought-hit east Africa has soared by about two million as conditions continue to deteriorate in Ethiopia and Kenya.
The Kenyan government says 3.5 to four million people are now at risk of starvation in its north, northeast, western and coastal regions, up from 2.5 million, while the United Nations said 1.75 million in southeast and east Ethiopia were now in need of urgent aid, up from about 1 million.
The additional number of people in need means that Kenya now needs €217 million in emergency donor aid to fill a relief funding shortfall.
In New York, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) said that failed rains had left Ethiopia's southeastern Somali region and eastern Oromiya region 'confronting an escalating humanitarian crisis'.
