Christian relief groups are responding to the growing food crisis in East Africa by distributing desperately needed food to the millions of people facing starvation along with launching emergency appeal funds for victims of the region’s worst drought in years.

Christian Aid recently launched an emergency appeal for East Africa where the United Nations reports that 11 million people are at risk of starvation in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Djibouti.

“This is a crisis on the verge of becoming a catastrophe,” said Domimic Nutt, Christian Aid’s emergencies specialist in the region, in a report by Christian Aid on Monday. “There are dead cattle everywhere and people have sold everything they have to buy food. These are the last few weeks that many people are going to be able to survive without help.”