At least six children have died of severe malnutrition in southwestern Somalia, where people are experiencing a famine after over two decades of war.

Mohamud Wariye, a Somali government official, said on Thursday that there are reports that six children have starved to death in Wajid district of the Bakool region, located 330 kilometers (205 miles) southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, over the past few days. The district has been hard-hit with drought since mid-2014.

Wariye added that the district commissioner has asked for assistance from Mogadishu government, and Somalia authorities are trying to plan the logistics.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has voiced alarm over the growing number of people facing hunger in Somalia, calling for urgent humanitarian aid to “avert another famine” in the Horn of Africa state.

“Over three million Somalis are in need of humanitarian assistance and unfortunately that number is growing,” Ban said during his visit to Somalia on October 29, 2014.

The United Nations has pledged some USD 933 million to help prevent a new famine in the country, but the world body has only received a third of the amount it has appealed for.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), about 218,000 Somali children under the age of five are grappling with malnourishment.

Somalia was the hardest hit by a severe drought in 2011 that affected more than 13 million people across the Horn of Africa. More than 250,000 Somalis died in a famine which was caused by the drought.

The African country has been the scene of clashes between government forces and al-Shabab fighters since 2006.

Somalia did not have an effective central government from 1991 to 2012, when lawmakers elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the new president.