The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday appealed for 460 million dollars as a food crisis in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa continued to grow.

"The Horn of Africa region is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1984, and Ethiopia is caught in the middle," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement.

"We know what needs to be done - we just need the funds to go out and do our job, protecting the hungry," she added.

The WFP said that it needed to funds to feed 9.6 million people hit by drought and rising food prices in Ethiopia alone.

Pastoralist communities have lost half of their cattle, people are skipping meals and children are being pulled from school to beg for food, the WFP said.

A similar crisis is unfolding in Somalia, where it is being exacerbated by a bloody insurgency. The WFP says that 3.25 million Somalis - almost half the population - people are in dire need of assistance.

However, food deliveries to Somalia are complicated by the fact that they must be brought in by a sea teaming with pirates. Pirates are currently demanding ransom for a dozen ships seized off the Somali coast.

A Canadian ship has been escorting humanitarian aid, but it will end its mission on September 27 with no replacement lined up, the WFP said.

Parts of Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya and Uganda are also facing a food crisis.