Scottish singer Sandi Thom will back an Oxfam campaign to boost emergency aid to the millions threatened with destitution in East Africa.
She will help Oxfam Scotland workers put up an 11,000-litre water tank, the kind used in emergencies, in Glasgow's George Square to illustrate what funds can buy.
The charity called on Scots to donate to its emergency work across East Africa, wher
e rising food prices, poor rains and drought are leaving people at risk of severe hunger.
Oxfam Scotland said an estimated 9 to 13 million people in the region are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Rob McNeil, of Oxfam, who has just returned from the Somali and Afar regions of Ethiopia, said: "This is a catastrophe in the making, we have time to act before it becomes a reality.
"The cost of food has escalated by up to 500% in some places, leaving people who have suffered drought after drought in utter destitution.
"We fear that the worst could be yet to come as the crisis deteriorates across East Africa," he said.
Oxfam said that in Somalia, 2.6 million - some 35% of the population - need emergency assistance and warned that this could increase to half the population of the country by the end of 2008.
The charity said that in Ethiopia, the government estimates 4.6 million people are now in need of emergency food assistance while some 75,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in drought stricken areas.
Oxfam urged donors to increase aid levels to the region and called for action to tackle the underlying causes of crises.
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