Nairobi  - Soaring food prices, constant droughts and conflict have edged 14 million people in the Horn of Africa toward potential starvation, an international aid agency said Thursday, just two years after one of the worst droughts in decades hit the region.

CARE International said millions of people across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are seeing their water sources dry up, their livestock perish and their access to food increasingly limited.

"Without rain in the next month households that are still struggling to get back on their feet will be facing a severe food and water emergency again," said Steve Wallance, CARE's regional director for East and Central Africa.

CARE said donors must give aid on a more sustainable, long-term basis, rather than too late during a crisis.

Conflicts in Somalia, Kenya and eastern Ethiopia have displaced hundreds of thousands and made many aid-dependent.

Food prices meanwhile have climbed dramatically since the end of last year due to food shortages, natural disasters and to some extent, the growing use of foods such as corn for biofuels.

CARE said it is providing food to more than 600,000 people in Somalia, with another 200,000 set to be reached by June. It trucks water to displaced communities in Kenya and provides livestock feed to pastoralists in Ethiopia.

Some 15 million people across five countries were affected by drought in 2006. (dpa)