A senior U.N. envoy appealed for urgent help for 11 million people hit by food shortages amid severe drought in parts of Africa.

"This is a very serious and a big crisis, and if the world community does not wake up, then it would become a real catastrophe," Kjell Magne Bondevik said Thursday while visiting an ancient Maasai grazing land that was littered with animal carcasses.

"People are already starving and people are dying."

Bondevik, the new U.N. humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa and a former Norwegian prime minister, toured this southern corner of Kenya to see for himself the impact of the drought that has hit eastern, central and the Horn of Africa.

Only a tiny fraction of aid needed to help the people hit by food shortages has been received, although the crisis is worsening, the international charity Oxfam said Thursday.

The crisis is so bad in some parts of northern Kenya that families are being forced to eat insects, wild berries and squirrels to stay alive, according to Oxfam.

Donors, however, have committed only $18.7 million (euro15.8 million), or eight percent of the $225 million (euro190 million) being sought by Kenya's government, the U.N. and aid agencies to buy food for 3.5 million people hit by food shortages in the country, Oxfam said.

Neighboring Somalia is facing a $144 million (euro121 million) shortfall to help feed and provide medicine and water to the hungry. Ethiopia needs another $38 million (euro32 million) to meet the needs, Oxfam said.

Kajiado is not the worst affected district in Kenya, but even then, 70 percent of its 532,000 people have been hit by the drought, George Otieno, the officer in charge of the emergency response to the drought in the area said during Bondevik's visit.

Poor rain for three years

The area has had poor rains for three consecutive years, leading to a total crop failure.

Some 80 percent of the 453,000 cattle have migrated to Kenya's capital of Nairobi, to neighboring Tanzania and other areas in search of water and pastures, Otieno said.

Children have been pulled out of schools in the course of this desperate search for water and pastures for cattle that Masai see as a sign of wealth and prestige, he said.

The drought has killed 40 percent of cattle, 20 percent of sheep and 25 percent of goats in the area, Otieno said.

Residents criticize the government for failing to come up with programs to manage the frequent droughts in the country.

Nothing to rebuild herds

Moses Yiare, who lost 300 cattle, or 60 percent of his herd, said the government has also failed to help them sell their cattle at reasonable rates as the drought continues to bite. Cattle herders also do not have access to credit that could enable them to replenish their stocks when the drought ends, he said.

"Drought are not uncommon here, but we do not take the proper steps to deal with them. If we do not do this, we would see people dying like the animals are now," Yiare said.

Tuesday, Bondevik said aid organizations needs to make longer term efforts to address the root causes of hunger, which is often triggered rather than caused by drought.

More than 40 percent of people in the Horn of Africa are undernourished, according to the U.N. years of high rates of malnutrition, sickness and conflict have exacerbated the crisis, the U.N. said.

Malnutrition levels in parts of the northeastern Kenyan province of Wajir are more than double the 15 percent level at which an emergency is declared by U.N. standards.

In Turkana, in northwestern Kenya, some families are surviving on wild fruits, squirrels and insects because of shortage of other food sources.

Source: CNN