The President

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Children across Niger and North Mali are starving as the world ignores appeals for help.

Around 150,000 children will die soon without aid, according to Jan Egeland, head of UN Emergency Relief.

A deadly combination of poor rains and locust invasions have devastated last year's crops leaving around 3.5 million people in Niger with little or no food.

Millions Affected

Experts say this is the worst food crisis for 20 years in Niger , which ranks as the second poorest country in the world.

"If the famine continues my family and I will die," said 80-year-old Abdou Adamou, a farmer from Tondikiwindi , Niger . "We have nothing to survive on. There is no food, no property and no livestock."

A further 1.5 million people in the north of neighbouring Mali are also affected.

Rocketing Food Prices

Livestock are dying of starvation and drought in great numbers. It takes years for nomadic herdsmen to build up their herds, which have now been decimated.

Failed harvests have also sent farmers spiralling into poverty and hunger. Seeds for the next harvest have been eaten, leaving nothing to plant for October.

Food prices in the markets have more than doubled. In a country where two thirds of the population lives on less than $1 a day, most people cannot afford to buy food.

Desperate Search for Food

Dozens of villages have been abandoned as their hungry residents wander the desert in search of food. Some people head for the towns and cities, or even neighbouring countries.

Villagers gather leaves, berries and roots of wild plants to eat. Even these are becoming scarce in some areas, as so many people are relying on them for food.

“I have no means to face this famine,” explains Zali Adamou, a 90-year-old widow from the Tillaberi region in Niger . “I have no food, livestock, nothing. I only have God!”

Horn of Africa

Millions Face Starvation

Three years of unremitting drought across regions of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia is pushing millions of people to the brink of starvation.

The Government of Kenya has appealed for urgent help.

Worst Affected

The worst drought in living memory has struck 25 districts across northern Kenya.

Over 3.5 million people are directly affected, with thousands at risk of malnutrition. Malnutrition rates in the northern regions are estimated to be between 18 and 30 percent, which is far higher than the 15 percent mark which indicates a critical situation.

Livestock are dying by the hundreds. Their deaths in turn threaten the lives of the nomadic people who are dependent on the animals. Farmers are also in desperate need as crops have repeatedly failed due to the lack of rainfall.

No Water

Water is scarce. People are forced to dig to dangerous depths to find water, while women and young girls walk miles to fetch water from distant rivers, risking crocodile attacks.

Mandera, on Kenya's border with Somalia and Ethiopia, is one of the worst-affected regions with more than 150,000 people at risk.

Over 75% of the families living in this region have serious food shortages, while 40% face critical water shortages.

Poverty-stricken refugees from neighbouring Ethiopia and Somalia and internally displaced Kenyans are the most vulnerable of the affected groups. They are already relying on food aid to stay alive.