Sharis Mohammed walked nine miles with her seven children in search of help after her family's livestock died. But when she reached this tiny town in southeastern Ethiopia, she found no international food aid.

An estimated six children die each day in this small corner of the Horn of Africa, where millions of people are suffering from a three-year drought and the resulting food shortage. Sharis is one of 7.7 million Ethiopians threatened with starvation. Aid agencies say a potential human catastrophe looms. Ethiopia, mired in a 23-month border conflict with Eritrea, has appealed for 920,500 tons of food aid because it can't muster sufficient resources on its own. Its own food reserves, which should be at 400,000 tons, are down to 50,000 tons, regional government officials say. Only half the relief food Ethiopia asked for has been pledged by donors. In Denan, 375 miles southeast of the capital Addis Ababa in Ethiopia's Somali region, as many as five families arrive daily at the camp, which is already home to 6,000 people. Most are nomads who rely on cattle, sheep, goats and camels for food and income. When their livestock dies, they have no alternative but to trek to a town in search of aid. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that more than 90 percent of the cattle and 65 percent of the sheep in the region have died. The gritty earth of Denan is baked hard, and nothing grows from it. Temperatures regularly rise above 100 degrees. International aid workers say no feeding center has been set up in Denan because the town of 7,000 lacks clean water with which to mix the children's food into gruel.