The UK will give South Sudan and Somalia aid packages of £100 million each following famine warnings in the two war-torn states.

More than a million lives are hoped to be saved by the measures announced by the Government, which is to provide food, safe drinking water and emergency healthcare in regions worst affected by conflict and drought.

A state of famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan, where 100,000 people are said to be on the verge of starvation.

In 2017 there is a credible risk of another three famines in Yemen, North East Nigeria and Somalia, said the Department for International Development (DFID).

The UK must respond to the crises facing these countries to “avoid catastrophe”, said International Development Secretary Priti Patel in a statement.

“The world faces a series of unprecedented humanitarian crises and the real threat of famine in four countries. These crises are being driven by conflict and drought and we must respond accordingly,” she said.

“Our commitment to UK aid means that when people are at risk of dying from drought and disaster, we have the tools and expertise to avoid catastrophe.”

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Severe drought in Somalia, where civil war has raged for more than two decades, resulted in the world’s last major food crisis in 2011.

Nearly 260,000 people died of hunger – half of them children under the age of five – according to a UN report.

DFID said that all the signs were pointing to a famine just as bad, or worse, in coming months.

Emergency food will be delivered to up to one million people in Somalia, where ongoing conflict has deprived more than six million of reliable access to food and 360,000 children are acutely malnourished.

Nutritional support will be provided to more than 600,000 starving children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Safe drinking water is also to be made available to a million people, and emergency healthcare for 1.7 million people.

Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Analysis by the UN estimates that 2.8 million people are currently facing “acute” food and nutrition insecurity in South Sudan’s Greater Upper Nile states, including Unity Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan This young Rooney fan is one of 40,000 people facing a catastrophic famine that the United Nations believe is already happening Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan Hunger is driving a range of behaviors. “Families are running out of options,” therefore the skin of cattle is being eaten; undigested food in slaughtered cattle’s stomachs is being removed and “squeezed” to create beef-smelling stock; the killing and eating of birds and animals, not usually hunted, is increasing Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan People living on the so-called “highlands” of the Sudd swamp travel on thin canoes for days to register for food Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan The WFP have evidence that children under 10, travelling on their own, walked over 120 miles over days to leave government-control locations for the thin security of Nuer-controlled Nyal Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan People endure three, four hour waits at five locations where the WFP counted, registered, and then finally distributed life-saving rations Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan A two-year bloody conflict between mainly Dinka and Nuer groups, allied to warring government and opposition forces, and now spreading into other inter-ethnic struggles, is destroying the country’s once potentially oil-rich future Ashley Hamer Thousands on brink of starvation in South Sudan One UN report says there is “overwhelming evidence” of a humanitarian emergency in four Unity counties where communities are already using “severe coping strategies” not been seen since the conflict began Ashley Hamer

DFID said more than half the population of South Sudan is in desperate need after famine was declared.

Almost five million face the daily threat of going without enough food and water, and three million people have been forced from their homes because of violence and widespread rape, the department said.

More than 1,300 rapes were recorded in just one of the country’s 10 states in a five-month period last year and all sides in its bloody civil war are accused of responsibility.