Agencies defend call for Africa aid cash

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the umbrella body that represents the UK's 14 leading aid agencies, explicitly rejected suggestions they were "crying wolf" over the crisis.

Instead they said they were right to raise the alarm before the crisis deepened.

The worst drought in more than 50 years has hit parts of East Africa affecting more than ten million people.

Thousands of families have travelled for days across scorched scrubland from Somalia to Kenya, including barefoot children, after drought destroyed their crops and livestock.

The DEC has thanked the generosity of the British public after a TV appeal broadcast on Friday on the BBC and ITV prompted donations of 6 million within 24 hours.

Yesterday the DEC cited a list of indicators suggesting the situation was far more serious than the frequent seasonal droughts in the region. They said in some areas the drought is the worst in 60 years with growing numbers of people affected across the Horn of Africa.

Acute malnutrition has reached 37 per cent in some parts of north-east Kenya and child refugees from Somalia are dying of causes related to malnutrition either during the journey or shortly after arrival at aid camps.

Prices of essential food items have rocketed, in some cases more than doubling as the price of cattle people are selling to buy grain falls sharply. The number of refugees fleeing Somalia has risen significantly with 1,700 a day arriving in Ethiopia.

Brendan Gormley, DEC chief executive, said: "The accusation aid agencies are crying wolf when we try to raise the alarm early enough to avert a major catastrophe has become wholly predictable. We accept the need to present our evidence and justify our conclusions. All we ask is the opportunity to do so."

Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk, by phone on 0370 60 60 900 or by texting 'CRISIS' to 70000 to donate 5, or by post at PO Box 999 London EC3A 3AA.