The scale of the disaster in the Horn of Africa is assuming dangerous proportions.

The drought in the Horn of Africa, which comprises Somalia, Eriteria, Djibouti and Ethiopia, is arguably the worst in recent history. More than 13 million people are in need of emergency assistance, as well as agriculture and livelihood interventions.

The rate of malnutrition in Somalia is now 50 per cent, meaning half of its people are at risk of malnutrition, starvation or death.

Hundreds of people, mostly Somalis, are dying every day. Most of them are children, as they are the first to be affected by malnutrition and hunger. Hundreds of thousands have fled, and the refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are overflowing.

Rediff.com takes you to closer to the Horn of Africa.

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Women rush to a feeding centre as the soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government try in vain to contain the crowd in Badbado, a camp for Internally Displaced Persons

Here is how you can help the Horn of Africa

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A malnourished child waits for emergency medical assistance from the African Union Mission in Somalia, an active regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations

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Parents wait with their malnourished and dehydrated children in a corridor at Banadir Hospital in the Somali capital Mogadishu

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A general view shows makeshift shelter tents for the internally displaced people at the Gorgor camp in Somalia's capital Mogadishu

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A Muslim prays in the open at the drought-hit Kulaley village in Wajir, northeastern Kenya

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Somali refugees gather to collect water at the Kobe refugee camp 60 km from Dolo Ado near the Ethiopia-Somalia border

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A displaced Somali prepares to serve food at a camp in Hodan district in capital Mogadishu

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A woman walks past carcasses of cattle in the drought-stricken Eladow area in Wajir, northeastern Kenya

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Ibrahim Mohamed, a four-year-old refugee boy from Baidoa region in Somalia, is weighed to check for acute severe malnutrition inside the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders) clinic at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) transit centre in Dolo Ado near the Ethiopia-Somalia border

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