© Reuters/Omar FarukAn internally displaced woman sits with her malnourished children at Badbado refugee camp in the south of capital Mogadishu, August 1, 2011.
The famine in the Horn of Africa is spreading and may soon engulf as many as six more regions of the lawless nation of Somalia, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief said on Monday.
Some "12.4 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are in dire need of help and the situation is getting worse," U.N. under-secretary-general and emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos told reporters.
The United Nations declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia -- where 3.7 million people are going hungry -- on July 20. There is always a steady trickle of Somalis coming into northern Kenya, mostly fleeing violence, but in recent months they have also been looking for food.
"Today we are warning that unless we see a massive increase in the response, the famine will spread to five or six more regions," she said.
"Tens of thousands of Somalis have already died and hundreds of thousands face starvation with consequences for the entire region."
Amos said the African Union would hold a funding conference with the assistance of the United Nations soon to help raise money for the drought-stricken region.