“We need the whole of the international community now to bend every sinew to help these poor people here who are in a desperate condition.”
The UN has made its first aid delivery to drought victims in areas of Somalia controlled by al-Qaeda-linked militants since they lifted an aid ban.
Unicef airlifted food and medicine to malnourished children to the central town of Baidoa, more than 200km (about 125 miles) north-west of the capital, Mogadishu.
Ms Chorlton, the Unicef representative for Somalia, said al-Shabab had assured the agency it could operate without undue interference.
Al-Shabab, which rules over large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories two years ago, accusing them of being anti-Muslim. It lifted the ban 10 days ago as long as groups had “no hidden agenda”.
“They gave assurances that our access for humanitarian purposes would be unhindered and that we would be able to reach the people who need support most,” Ms Chorlton told the BBC.
Unicef paid no fees to al-Shabab, and that the success of the mission meant it would be repeated in the near future, she added.
She warned the situation was close to famine.
Thousands of people have been fleeing al-Shabab’s territories in search of food and water - some to Mogadishu, where aid agencies are operating in areas controlled by the the weak interim government, and others to Ethiopia and Kenya.
Some 1,400 Somali refugees are arriving every day at Kenya’s overcrowded Dadaab camp - some walking up to 20 days to get there.
