The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has said the world is slowly losing the battle against hunger in the Horn of Africa.

The IFRC issued the stark warning as it renewed its call for support to assist nearly 2.5 million food insecure people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia with emergency food, water and recovery activities.

"The battle against persistent, chronic malnutrition and hunger is at risk of slowly being lost. Our message to the world is simple: in the Horn of Africa, hunger, a result of chronic, major deficit in calorie intake, kills," Dr. Asha Mohammed, head of IFRC's Eastern Africa zone said in a statement issued in Nairobi on Wednesday.

During 2008 IFRC reached and now has continued to assist more than 465,000 people in the four countries.

While the organization itself advances more than 10 million Swiss francs (about 9.2 million U.S. dollars) from its own reserves toward the operation, last year's emergency appeal only received a meagre 9 percent coverage.

According to IFRC, more than 2.2 million East Africans were also reached through punctual minor and medium disaster interventions in 2008.

Lack of resources and adequate assistance has already resulted in conflicts between neighboring communities in Kenya, confirming earlier IFRC warnings.

The organization said the coordinated work of authorities and the Red Cross Red Crescent in these very regions has been further complicated by outbreaks of Acute Watery Diarrhoea and cholera.

"These are a result of increased concentration of semi-nomadic populations and their animals around the few water points that still function following several years of prolonged drought in the region and poor sanitation," it said.

Clashes have taken place in Red Cross operation areas around Mandera, in northern Kenya and on the fluid borders with Ethiopia and Somalia.

It said lives have been lost and people displaced during these conflicts that risk being replicated elsewhere in the Horn of Africa.

Across the region desperate pastoralists converge with their exhausted livestock from long distances towards the few remaining water sources.

"After having walked for days, people and cattle have to wait an additional three to four days before being able to access an already overused borehole. We need the means to do more," says Abbas Gullet, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross.

His message was echoed by his Ethiopian counterpart Fasika Kabede who said: "Unless we are able to offer people sufficient aid and livelihood alternatives, their situation will only worsen. We have the capacity and the skill to do more. But we need more resources to continue this battle."

In Djibouti, the IFRC is teaming up with WFP to assist some 50, 000 destitute pastoralists affected by four consecutive droughts. In Somalia, where the WHO estimates that in 50 percent of under- five mortality malnutrition is an underlying factor, the Red Crescent is ready to add eight health clinics to its existing network of 50 mobile and fix health facilities.

"In Somalia child mortality rates due to Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI), diarrhoea, measles and malaria are among the highest in the world. These are further worsened by poor nutrition. We need to reach these children before it's too late," said Dr. Ahmed M. Hassan, president of the Somali Red Crescent.

"Food assistance is only a fraction of the solution to peoples' problems. Food-aid is critical but its impact ends as soon as it gets digested," said Roger Bracke who is leading IFRC's work in the Horn of Africa.

"This operation urgently needs more support to enable it to assist the worst affected to develop alternative and additional sources of income that will allow them to become self-sustainable without total reliance on animals or rains."

The IFRC revised emergency appeal seeks 67 million U.S. dollars to assist 2.5 million people over a five year period.

It takes into account the increased vulnerability in Kenya over the past few months and increases by nearly 300,000 the total number of beneficiaries.