"A humanitarian catastrophe (could) engulf the drought-stricken Horn of Africa unless WFP receives urgent donations to provide emergency food aid for an estimated 5.4 million people," it said in a statement released in the Kenyan capital.

The 5.4 million live in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. The WFP said they were at imminent risk of starvation and appealed for urgent donations to assist the region's worst-affected populations which have already been hit by mass livestock deaths.

"While final figures on the number of people in need of urgent assistance are still being established, donors must respond now if we are going to avert a humanitarian catastrophe," said Holdbrook Arthur, WFP's regional director for east and central Africa.

"Children's health and nutrition are deteriorating because many of them are eating just one meal each day and the livestock that many families depend on for food are dying in large numbers from exhaustion and lack of water and food," he said.

"Pastoralists living in these arid, remote lands have very few survival strategies left and desperately require our assistance to make it through until the next rains," Arthur said.

In Kenya, where at least 40 people have died from malnutrition or associated illness and President Mwai Kibaki has declared the drought a national emergency, more than 2.5 million people are expected to require food aid to survive by the end of next month, the WFP said.

"This represents a dramatic increase from the previous 1.1 million people being assisted by WFP and will require an extra 236,000 tonnes of food valued at 140 million dollars (116 million euros)," the agency said.

Meanwhile, Kenyan police have arrested 24 local traders for allegedly stealing and selling food aid intended for the drought victims in Garissa town, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Nairobi, government spokesman Alfred Mutua said.

In addition, they recovered 500 bags of beans intended for drought relief that had been repackaged to be sold.

"The government will ensure that no food meant for hungry people is diverted," Mutua said.

"This is an isolated case and the government reacted immediately because it takes the issue of providing food to the hungry seriously," he said, adding that police were moving to dismantle a cartel suspected of stealing food aid.

In southern Somalia, which is heading for its worst harvest in a decade, an estimated 1.4 million people need assistance and an additional 59,000 tonnes of food worth 46 million dollars (38 million euros) are required to stave off famine, it said.

In southeast Ethiopia, the number of people in dire need is estimated at 1.5 million, on top of some 5.5 million people who have already been receiving WFP assistance, the UN body said, adding that in Djibouti, the number is feared likely to rise from 47,000 to 60,000 in the coming months.

Similar warnings have been issued by regional governments and relief agencies, including the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, since mid-December when the effects of the drought began to bite.

On Thursday, the British aid agency Oxfam said it was "seriously concerned" about the crisis in Kenya, particularly in parts of the northeast where it said as much as 70 percent of livestock may have died.

"Assistance to the country needs to be stepped up urgently," it said.

The Kenyan government announced this week it would waive import duties on food aid as it battles the shortages which the Central Bank of Kenya said in its latest monthly economic outlook on Friday could undercut projected growth -- which was more than five percent in 2005, up from 4.3 percent in 2004 -- this year.

"Sustained economic recovery ... stands the risk of losing momentum due to the on-going drought particularly if the March-May 2006 long rains fail to occur as expected," the bank said.

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