UK pledges £52m aid to victims of east African drought

Somalians displaced by the drought arrive in Mogadishu seeking food and shelter. Photograph: Abdurashid Abikar/AFP/Getty Images

The development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, is to announce a ?52.5m package of UK aid to help more than one million victims of drought in east Africa.

Faced with a worsening humanitarian disaster, Britain will provide financial assistance to the three worst affected countries: Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

"People across Britain have responded with great generosity to appeals by British NGOs working in the Horn of Africa," Mitchell said before leaving for the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where he will make the announcement.

"But the situation is getting worse – and is particularly devastating in Somalia, where families already have to cope with living in one of the most insecure countries in the world."

Almost half the aid – ?25m – will help provide food, medical treatment, shelter, agricultural supplies and access to safe water for half a million Somalians.

A further ?16m will be spent in the Dadaab refugee camp, and in the Dolo Ado camp in Ethiopia, both of which are struggling to cope with the influx of people from the worst-affected drought areas. Kenya will receive more than ?11m to fight malnutrition among women and children.

Mitchell, who will make his announcement on Saturday alongside Brendan Gormley, the head of the disasters emergency committee, and the chief executive of Save the Children, Justin Forsyth, said: "More than 3,000 people a day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children.

"The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia."

Forsyth said: "Over the past few days, I've seen first hand the enormous suffering the drought is causing in the Dadaab refugee camp and across northern Kenya.

"Families I've met are absolutely desperate for food and water, and we know that the situation in Somalia is even worse.

"The UK government's extremely welcome announcement, combined with the overwhelming response of the British people, will help save hundreds of thousands of lives threatened by the worst drought in living memory."

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