The United Nations is expected to announced Monday that the famine in Somalia has spread to a sixth region in the drought-stricken country.

A U.N. official has told VOA the famine now includes the Bay region in south Somalia.

Bay is a major food-producing region of Somalia and the official said food production there has dropped 82 percent.

Many Somali refugees who flee to camps in the capital, Mogadishu, and neighboring Ethiopia and Kenya come from the Bay region.

In a release this week, the United Nations cited reports that the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab has restricted movement in the Bay area.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is also expected to announce that more than half of Somalia's population – about four million people – now need urgent aid.

The United Nations says more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa need immediate assistance.

The U.N. has also declared a famine in the Somali regions Bakool, Lower Shabelle, Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye Corridor and parts of Mogadishu.

Most of the famine areas are under the control of al-Shabab, which has banned most foreign aid groups from operating in its strongholds.