"We are already facing an acute humanitarian crisis, in particular in the Sanaag and Sool regions ... due to four years of consecutive drought," said the UN humanitarian cordinator for Somalia, Maxwell Gaylard.

The disputed region, claimed by both the northwestern breakaway republic of Somaliland and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast, has previously been the scene of intense fighting.

Gaylard urged aid agencies to assist the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP), which have already launched emergency programmes in the region, "to avert worsening malnutrition and deteroriation of food security."

"To avert a full-scale disaster, we need donors to urgently and generously support emergency intervention programmes designed to save lives of the most vulnerable, and at the same time build their capacity to be self-reliant," he added.

"With the current rains apparently failing again, we expect that the remaining livestock will die, the local economy will collapse and this will trigger large-scale population movements to towns and adversely affect health and welfare of the communities, particulary children," Gaylard said.

Somalia plunged into a bloody clan warfare in 1991 after the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, leaving the vast majority of its people without food security.

TERRA.WIRE