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A group of global artists, activists and business leaders have signed a joint letter urging world leaders to step up their response to the famine in the Horn of Africa. They call on them to act “without reservation, prevarication or equivocation” when they meet at an emergency summit in Rome today.

Several rich governments are guilty of wilful neglect as the aid effort to avert catastrophe in East Africa limps along due to an $800 million shortfall.

The UN announcing famine in parts of Somalia, the first in the region in the 21st century, must be an urgent wake up call to the rest of the world, Oxfam said.

A consortium of aid organizations today announced that Mary Robinson will travel this weekend to the drought stricken region of the Horn of Africa. The consortium – including Concern Worldwide, Trocaire and Oxfam – collectively reach in excess of a million people in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Actress Kristin Davis has been visiting the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya with Oxfam, to see the devastating impact of the drought. More than 10 million people are facing desperate food shortages in the worst food crisis of the 21st century.

While the international community has stepped up to help those impacted by mega-emergencies, such as the earthquake in Haiti or the floods in Pakistan, unfortunately, “slow-onset” humanitarian crises, such as the worsening drought in the Horn in Africa, have not received the same attention.

Oxfam today launched its largest ever appeal in Africa in response to a massive food crisis facing more than 12 million people across Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The agency needs $80 million to reach 3 million people in dire need of clean water, food and basic sanitation.

Somalia is suffering its worst drought in years and failed rains are already devastating half a million lives, international aid agency Oxfam warned today. An ongoing conflict in the country together with the drought has pushed hundreds of thousands of Somalis beyond their ability to cope.

Floods and heavy rains across Niger have destroyed crops less than two months before harvest, compounding the country's existing food crisis. Flooding has killed at least six people, left thousands homeless, ruined crops and forced hungry families to crisis point.

Insufficient funding and delays in food delivery threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands in the Sahel belt of West Africa. There is little excuse for the lack of adequate funding and delays – the international community had been warned of the magnitude of the unfolding crisis for months.