|PIC1|More than 10 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania are in urgent need of food due to excessive droughts and meagre harvests, Christian Aid reports.

The government of Kenya has declared the famine conditions affecting parts of the country a national disaster and has called for national and international efforts to raise much needed aid to provide food for about 2.5 million people, almost 10 percent of the population, over the next six months, according to Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.

Christian groups are currently offering aid to help Kenyans suffering from the food emergency crisis. According to the Information and Communications Minister Mutahi Kagwe, the number of Kenyans at risk from the food crisis has increased to 3.5 million, up from 2.5 million.

Recently, Christian Aid has given £20,000 to its partner Northern Aid in Kenya, to provide water to people hit by the devastating drought with more funds likely to follow shortly.

Northern Aid works in northern Kenya with pastoralists, the animal-farming communities who live and move with their cattle to find water. The pastoralist communities of northern Kenya have been the hardest hit by the droughts, with many cattle having died of thirst.

Food for the Hungry International’s (FHI) Keith Wright says, "It's accelerating as people lose more and more livestock. That's really what they rely on for food, and as they die they really run out of resources quickly when that happens. So, what we're seeing, unfortunately, the situation getting worse every day," says Wright.

With little access to food and water, many suffering from the drought have evacuated to towns looking for help.