(VOVworld)- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday appealed for 5.6 billion U.S. dollars -- 4.4 billion of it by the end of next month -- to prevent famine in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen where 20 million people face famine.

Health staff take care of malnutritous children in Nigeria- Photo: AFP/TTXVN

He was joined by UN Development Program Administrator Helen Clark, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien, who is also the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and on a video link Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), at a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York. Two counties of South Sudan have already met the criteria for a famine situation to be declared, Cousins said. GUterres said that  just 90 million U.S. dollars has actually been received so far. O'Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said the threatened 20 million victims are facing famine or risk of famine or starvation over the next six months and that includes 1.4 million children who are currently at imminent risk of death from severe, acute malnutrition.