Twelve million people are in need of food aid because of drought and conflict in the Horn of Africa region, a senior economist at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said Tuesday.

"There are nearly 12 million people who are now affected by the emergency," Shukri Ahmed told AFP at the organisation's Rome headquarters.

He said those affected in parts of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda required "immediate food assistance", including fresh livestock.

The UN's World Food Programme last week said it believed 10 million were in need of food aid, an increase from an earlier estimate of six million.

"Most of these people are pastoralists ... They depend on their livestock and they need immediate rehabilitation of their livestock," including access to water and prevention of animal disease, Ahmed said.

"We need also to put in place the seed and other equipment for these people to get back on their feet at the next rainy season, which is expected to start in October," he added, calling for increased investments from governments.

Ahmed said the long-running conflict in Somalia was "the centre of this problem." "To do any specific thing of course you need stability and a situation in which ... everyone can move around to help people," he said.

Thousands of Somalis have fled their country in recent months to neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya to seek help from the devastation and many have died as the region suffers one of its worst droughts in decades.

Ahmed however said the crisis was unlikely to escalate to the levels seen during the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s because the international community was now more aware and had better early warning systems in place.

earlier related report
African Union calls for Somalia drought aid
Addis Ababa (AFP) July 12, 2011 - The African Union called Tuesday on the international community to come to the aid of Somalia, where one in three people are suffering from the combined effect of unrest and drought.

"Close to three million people, that is one in three Somalis, are in need of humanitarian assistance," said the AU in a statement.

"This has led to major displacements into urban areas, in particular Mogadishu, as well as in neighbouring countries.

"The chairperson of the commission (the AU's Jean Ping) strongly calls on all AU member states to contribute in whatever way they can to the alleviation of the suffering of the affected populations."

Ping appealed to AU partners and international humanitarian organisations to provide "much needed financial and logistical support" for the relief efforts in Somalia.

The AU raised concerns in April about a significant reduction in overall funding levels for Somalia over the last two years.

It said Tuesday that Ping had directed the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) "to continue doing everything in its powers to provide security for humanitarian personnel in Mogadishu, in order to facilitate access to those in need of food and other relief items."

"AMISOM is already providing limited humanitarian assistance (medical care and water) to local communities in Mogadishu," the statement said.

The 9,000-strong AMISOM is responsible for protecting Somalia's transitional powers from Shebab insurgents.

The Islamist group said last week it would authorise aid organisations to operate in the areas under its control given the severity of the drought situation.