Since the beginning of December, at least 40 people have died as a result of malnutrition in hospitals and outlying nomadic villages in northeastern Kenya, which, along with neighboring southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia, has been badly hit by two years of failed rains, they said.

At least 16 children died at the provincial hospital in Garissa, the biggest referral facility in the Wajir region about 580 kilometers (360 miles) from Nairobi, while more than 24 others died in outlying areas that are hard to access, the officials said.

In the last 10 days, eight children died in the hospital, said Ahmed Arale, the chief nursing officer in the hospital, confirming an account from the Kenyan Red Cross.

On Wednesday the Red Cross launched a new appeal for help as the number of at risk people is expected to rise to 2.5 million by next month.

"More deaths are still being reported," it said, "the latest being the deaths of eight malnourished children on 2nd January 2006 in Wajir."

"Most of the deaths are due to complications related to malnutrition," local administrator Paul Chemutut told the aid agency, adding that many of the severely weakened patients were also suffering from pneumonia, anemia and malaria among other diseases.

The Red Cross said hundreds more could die, and appealed for 8.4 million dollars (7.1 million euros) to fund its humanitarian operations in 21 of the worst-hit districts.

"The situation is quite grave," said Red Cross medic Asha Mohammed. "Many children are malnourished and require supplementary feeding."

"Generally, the situation is getting worse and pressure is piling on the weakened people and livestock," said Farid Abdulkadir, the head of the disaster operations for the Red Cross.

As he spoke, the Kenya Food Security Meeting, an umbrella group comprised of relief organizations, donors and government officials, warned of a "serious food security crisis" due to the lack of rain and UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said immediate action was required to prevent a disaster.

"We are sounding the alarm now because of what the early warning indicators are all showing a rapidly deteriorating situation," WFP country director Tesema Negash said in a statement. "We need immediate action to avoid the loss of people's assets and their lives."

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared the situation a "national disaster" and appealed over Christmas for 100 million dollars (84 million euros) to fill a shortfall in funding to purchase and distribute food and water.

His government has come under fire for its response to the crisis but insists it is doing everything it can, and has ordered the military to assist in relief deliveries.

"Right now, we are doing our best to make sure that no more people die because of hunger in the country," said Colonel Shem Amadi, the head of the National Operations Centre (NOC). "But we accept the work ahead of us enormous."

About 6.5 million people in northeast Kenya, southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia are threatened by the drought, according to the US government's Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS).

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