Andrew Mitchell urges action on Africa drought

Mr Mitchell is currently visiting the Dadaab camp in Kenya, which is overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the parched landscape in the region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet.

He estimates that there are about 400,000 people in the camp.

He said: “We need everyone who can help from across the world now to make sure they focus on this developing crisis here to stop it becoming a catastrophe. There is an emergency developing of profound proportions.

“Britain, as always, has shown huge generosity and is in a leadership position to try and resolve this crisis. We need others to do so too. We need the whole of the international community now to bend every sinew to help these poor people here who are in a desperate condition.”

Mr Mitchell said the situation is particularly devastating in Somalia, where families already have to cope with living in one of the most insecure countries in the world.

“More than 3,000 people every day are fleeing over the borders to Ethiopia and Kenya, many of them arriving with starving children,” he said.

“The international community must do more to help not only refugees but also those victims of the drought who remain in Somalia.”