The UN is preparing to airlift food aid to the drought-stricken areas of the Horn of Africa, but flights have been delayed due to administrative complications.
Airlifts were to begin on Tuesday to the Somali capital of Mogadishu, Dolo in Ethiopia and Wajir in Kenya. Now, officials say, they will not start until Wednesday.
The scheduled flights were delayed after a wait for clearance permission in Nairobi, Kenya, where the mission is being flown from, did not come on time.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the aid agency Doctors Without Borders said: "Whilst many of these refugees remain on the outskirts of the camps they are still not receiving adequate assistance. Delays in registration and access to food, water and shelter are tipping them over the edge."
David Orr, a World Food Programme spokesman, said: "The aircraft are loading with the hope that they can take off on Wednesday.
"This will be the first of series of flights - once they start, they will just keep coming and coming in an ongoing operation."
An emergency meeting of UN aid agencies and charities was held in Rome on Monday, where the decision to airlift food had been made.
'Catastrophic situation'
At the meeting, Jacques Diouf, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, urged world leaders to act fast.
"The catastrophic situation demands massive and urgent international aid," he said.
UN officials say the drought has killed tens of thousands of people over the past few months, and has forced desperate survivors to walk for weeks in search of food and water. More than 12 million people are at risk of starvation.
The situation in southern Somalia has deteriorated so badly that the UN has declared it a famine zone.
PHOTO CAPTION
Internally displaced Somali men perform prayer over the body of a man who died of starvation July 25, 2011 at an IDP camp in Mogadishu.
Al-Jazeera