1.5 Million Somalis May Starve Without Aid, U.N. Official Says : Appeal: Food and basic medical care are needed to save those hit by drought and war, expert warns.

More than 1.5 million Somalis may starve to death unless the world helps the eastern African nation, which has been ravaged by war and drought, a U.N. official said Friday.

“Without an immediate injection of support from the international community, the lives of over 1.5 million Somalis are under threat,” Ian MacLeod, a U.N. Children’s Fund official in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, said in a statement.

The appeal was issued after reports that 150 Somali refugees died when the ship carrying them was refused entry and ran aground off Yemen. The refugees died from hunger and thirst aboard ship or while trying to swim ashore, U.N. officials said.

In addition, a Yemeni official said Friday that bandits on the ship had murdered 70 of the refugees, mainly women and children. The presumed killers, also Somalis, had been arrested and were being held, the official said.

“The tragic plight of Somalis fleeing by boat to Yemen is just one illustration of the mass movement of people in search of food and medical aid,” MacLeod said.

He said required aid includes food, basic medical care and support for thousands of displaced people to go back to farms.

Famine will not end until displaced people can go home and resume their normal lives, he said.

“The situation of the devastated population is almost unequaled, and the funding and resources are limited,” he added.

As many as 100 children die each day in Mogadishu, a U.N. food report said Wednesday.

Relief experts say instability is still the main obstacle to aid operations rather than “donor fatigue.”