Nairobi - Somalia's transitional president on Thursday appealed for $60-million (about R3,7-billion) in aid for Somalis facing severe food and water shortages and the threat of famine in the drought-hit south of the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

In a statement released as drought and pre-famine conditions have also hit neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia triggering dire warnings that many more millions of people are at-risk of starvation, President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed urged donors not to forget about Somalis in need.

"There is a humanitarian emergency throughout southern Somalia," he said, describing the situation as "volatile" among the mainly nomadic pastoralist population in the area.