NAIROBI, Sept. 15 -- The UN and East Africa's regional bloc on Monday appealed to the international community to move swiftly and avert a looming humanitarian disaster in the Horn of Africa region.

In a joint statement issued in Nairobi, UN Assistant Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung-Wha Kang, and Mahboub Maalim, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), appealed for immediate funds to help 14 million people who are food insecure in the region.

"Displacement in Horn of Africa stand at an estimated 6.8 million people and 14 million people are food insecure, yet funding has remained at half of the appeal," Kang said.

The number of hungry people in the Horn of Africa has risen as drought, rising food and fuel prices and conflict take their toll.

The drought began with the failure of the short rains last year in eastern parts of the Horn of Africa, pushing millions of people into hunger.

According to UN and IGAD, the food shortage in Somalia and South Sudan,as a result of drought and violence and conflict, has had serious consequences for food and nutrition situation for large sections of the population.

"This coupled with an on-going conflict in both countries, lower than usual rains in Somalia, poor vegetation cover and poor animal health, and hiking of prices and limited access by humanitarian agencies, is pushing these countries to closer to an impending worrisome food security and malnutrition situation," it said.

The move comes after UN agencies called for more donor support to help scale up humanitarian assistance in Somalia.

A latest food security report released early September says more than 1 million people in Somalia face acute food insecurity, and 218,000 children under the age of 5 are acutely malnourished, as food crisis worsens in the Horn of Africa nation.

The joint assessment by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit for Somalia (FSNAU), a project managed by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and other partners warned that the situation is likely to deteriorate further until October.

The statement said out of the 933 million U.S. dollar appeal, less than one third has been raised. Both IGAD and the UN are urging the donor community and governments of the region to urgently scale up response to avert a humanitarian disaster.

"Despite early warning indicators, there appears to be inadequate to potential impact of these on lives and livelihoods, and this could impact negatively on the fragile peace in Somalia and South Sudan," the statement said.

IGAD fact-finding mission reports indicate that 7 million out of 12.9 million people in South Sudan are food insecure, 3.9 million are severely food insecure, with 1.2 million already at the risk of famine (if violence continues), and 50,000 children at a risk of dying from starvation.