UNICEF has called for an immediate expansion of assistance across the Horn of Africa's drought afflicted communities. More than two million children are in dire need, with half a million at imminent risk of dying.

Across East Africa, nearly 11 million people are at risk.

Thousands of women and children are fleeing central and southern Somalia every day.

But the crisis extends well beyond the daily flow of refugees into Kenya and Ethiopia. It also affects millions of subsistence farmers in these two countries, who depend on rainfall for their survival.

During a field mission to northern Kenya, UNICEF officials said they saw the silent face of the crisis, and the situation on the ground is very dire.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said, "What we have seen in the way of shortages in the food pipeline, in a number of this areas, this is leading to real suffering. All of these people live on the edge on any case, and this is perfect storm, is tipping them over into acute and severe needs."

Malnutrition rates in some parts of the Turkana Region have skyrocketed to 37 percent, and this situation has been replicated in other communities across the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia.

The UN children's agency warns that, with no improvement in overall food security conditions expected before early 2012, the already severe nutrition situation will likely worsen.

UNICEF is calling on donors to provide more assistance, to help alleviate the situation.

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