Nairobi (Sunatimes) The Australian government has urged the international community to rally behind the United Nations relief effort in the famine-struck Horn of Africa or risk hundreds of thousands of people starving to death, Reuters news agency has reported.

Governments worldwide and the United Nations have faced criticism for their slow response to the severe drought, the worst in the region for decades, affecting some 11 million people across Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti, says the agency.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told a media conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said that there is no uniformity in the security situation on the ground and needed to cut the U.N. some slack.

Rudd said failure by the international community to provide support amid a raging insurgency across much of southern Somalia would mean the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly children, adds the agency.

Earlier, the United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia and warned it could spread further field as people contend with the triple shock of drought, rising food prices amid critical shortages and conflict.

By Awale Ahmed