The World Food Programme (WFP) expects to receive shipment of a high nutrition food product to feed more than 60,000 children in Somalia on Saturday.
The UN food agency says it is the first time that it is using "Supplementary Plumpy", which is a peanut-based food to help children recover quickly from malnutrition.
WFP spokesperson, Emilia Casella says the number of vulnerable people in Somalia has increased by more than seventy per cent this year, with over three million people in need of food assistance.
"The most recent assessments are indicating critical rates of malnutrition in areas of south central Somalia and in the north. And to give an example, basically, the median rate of malnutrition in 20 surveys has found to be more than 18 per cent which is well above the emergency threshold."
Emilia Casella says the World Food Programme is expecting 20 metric tons of the peanut butter based high nutrition food to arrive by air tomorrow.