"She was born one month prematurely as her mother was weak and starving," said her 60-year-old grandmother, Habiba Abdi.

"Now my daughter has died, Mogey is my child and I must somehow try to keep her alive."

In this remote, arid region of northeastern Kenya, the food crisis that is threatening millions of east Africans with starvation has already claimed its first victims.

At least 30 people have died, with dozens more probably also perishing in remote inaccessible areas, local residents and officials say. Many others are showing signs of malnutrition.

Aid agencies have warned that east Africa could be on the brink of a "humanitarian catastrophe" as food stocks dwindle in Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Somalia, Eritrea and Tanzania after poor rains hit harvests.

The severity of the crisis has shocked people in Kenya, east Africa's richest nation and a top attraction for tourists who flock to its reserves and parks for safari holidays.

The number of people who face starvation is spiralling ever higher -- on Wednesday, Kenya's minister for emergency operations said the figure in his country had surged to around 4 million from an estimate of 2.5 million in December.

The United Nations has said that around 6 million people are threatened by hunger across the region.

"WHEN CAMELS DIE, HUMANS ARE NEXT"

Earlier this month, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared the drought a national disaster and appealed for $150 million in aid. Former colonial power Britain has pledged some money but aid agencies say the response in general has been slow.

At the roadside settlement of Lagbogol, hundreds of nomads have been forced to form settlements to qualify for meagre water rations from the government.

But while the few litres of water given to each person weekly is helping to keep the stronger adults alive, ailing children and the elderly have no access to medical care -- the nearest hospital is 80 km (50 miles) away in Wajir town.

Aid workers say pastoralists are among the hardest hit by the drought as the scale of the problem means they cannot use their usual coping mechanism -- migration.

Increasingly desperate searches for water and pasture have intensified clashes between Kenyan herders and pastoralists from neighbouring countries in Kenya's lawless border regions.

Health officials say while food and water are priorities for the hungry, medicines and health staff are desperately needed.

"The mortality rate, due to a combination of malnutrition- related diseases, is likely to rise, especially if the long rains due in April fail," said Roger Pearson, programme coordinator for the United Nation's children agency, UNICEF.

Local health workers in the northeastern Wajir district say the actual number of deaths could be three times as high as those reported because affected areas are remote and the largely Muslim populations bury their dead quickly.

Wajir has 15 medical centres, one hospital, 60 health workers and two doctors to serve an area of more than 56,000 sq km (21,600 sq miles) with a population of 400,000.

"The human health aspect is critical as we are finding people who are sick and weak can't even eat the food aid given -- they need to be treated first, so drugs are more important than food," said Wasike Taul, a health care worker in Wajir.

In the region's hospital, medical staff in the paediatric and maternity ward struggle to deal with the influx of sick children and pregnant women, many of whom have trekked hundreds of kilometres to get help.

Malnourished infants are attached to intravenous drips as mothers try to coax them to swallow some nutrient-rich paste. Since December, eight children have died.

Doctors say malnourished expectant mothers are having miscarriages due to diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and malaria which are attacking their weak immune systems.

Diseases such as cholera are also likely to spread as thousands of livestock die of hunger, leaving decomposing carcasses near villages and water points.

"The sheep have died, the cattle have died and now the more resilient animals such as goats and camels are dying through lack of grazing land and waters," said Ahmed Mohamed Farah, who works for a government body set up to monitor the drought.

"We know from experience that when camels start dying, humans are next."