The number of children stricken by severe malnutrition is rising in the Horn of Africa at an alarming rate.

The United Nations Children's Fund estimated Friday that 480,000 children in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia will suffer from an acute lack of food and water this year, a 50 percent increase over 2010.

UNICEF says the hardest hit area is southern Somalia, where at least one out of every three children is severely malnourished.

Spokeswoman Marixie Mercado says, in all, almost three million Somalis are in need of safe water, sanitation and health services. She says humanitarian conditions there are the worst they have been in 10 years.

She also says severe malnutrition cases in drought-stricken parts of Kenya are up 78 percent over last year. And half of the children arriving at refugee camps in Ethiopia are malnourished.

The United Nations says more than 10 million people across the Horn of Africa have been hurt by the region's worst drought in 60 years, forcing people to leave their homes and seek out already overcrowded refugee camps.