Seasonal rains have eased a searing killer drought in Kenya but some three million people still need food aid and urgent funds are required to help them, the United Nations said Wednesday. It said February to June "long rains" in the drought-stricken north had reduced from 3.5 million the number of people in need but appealed for 44 million dollars (35 million euros) to assist others for the next six months.

"It is good news that the rains have reduced the numbers, but this mustn't overshadow the fact that nearly three million people are relying on our help," the World Food Programme (WFP).

"One rainy season isn't enough to end this crisis," it said in a joint statement with the Kenyan government, lamenting a decline in donor funding for emergency programs in recent months. "These people need all our help."

The drought, which hit across east Africa starting late last year, was responsible for the deaths of dozens of humans as well as tens of thousands of livestock, on which the region's mainly nomadic herders depend.

At the height of the drought, as many as four million Kenyans, among 11 million in five Horn of Africa nations, were considered at-risk, according to UN agencies.

A just-concluded survey conducted by the government and WFP found that 2.41 million Kenyans still need general food distribution until March and 550,000 children would have to eat at school feeding programs, the statement said.

"The need is still great, particularly among nomadic herders in the north and northeast who lost all their livestock — their only assets — in the drought so were unable to rebuild their herds," it said.

WFP said it had received 69 percent of its 225-million-dollar (177-million-euro) target for its emergency operations in the region.

"These people are still suffering," John Munyes, Kenya's minister of state for special projects, said in the statement.

"It would be an absolute tragedy if they are abandoned now after we managed with the generosity of donors to help them survive even when all their animals had perished," he said.

Source: Agence France-Presse