"Three million childen in this region are at risk of death, diseases or the long-term consequences of malnutrition. They compromise a large proportion of the more than 14 million people critically affected and the numbers are on an alarming upward trajectory," a UNICEF statement said.

UNICEF is the latest of a number of UN aid agencies and non-governmental organisations to raise the alarm in recent weeks about the situation in Horn of Africa countries, especially Somalia and Ethiopia.

The drought has just added "to the worst violence" that the region has seen for several years in Somalia and in "certain parts of eastern Ethiopia", fuelling the sharp increase in food prices of more than 200 percent in the last eight months in the most affected regions, UNICEF said.

"Strong national leadership is needed at this critical juncture, and more international funding must be quickly mobilized. The risks to children and their families are immense and we are running out of time to reverse them," Per Engebak, UNICEF's regional director for east and southern Africa, said.

"Security is a major complication in responding to the need of affected people in many parts of the Horn at this time," Engebak said.

In Somalia, aid workers have increasingly become targets for murders of kidnappings. Six Somali workers working for the World Food Program in Somalia have been killed since the start of 2008.

Some 3.2 million Somalis, roughly 40 percent of the population, will require humanitarian aid from now until the end of the year -- an increase of 77 percent since January 2008, the UN says.

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