750 000 people may well die as drought worsens in Somalia in the coming months, the United Nations has warned, declaring the famine a new area.
The UN says tens of thousands of people died after what is said to be the worst drought in East Africa for 60 years.
Bay will be the sixth area to be officially declared a famine area - especially in the southern parts of Somalia controlled by the Islamist al-Shabab.
Some 12 million people in the region need food aid, the UN says.
The situation in the Bay area was worse than anything previously recorded, says senior UN technical adviser Grainne Moloney.
"The rate of malnutrition [children] in the Bay area is 58%. This is a registration fee of acute malnutrition," he told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
That's almost double the rate in which a famine is declared.
"A total of four million people in the Somali crisis, where 750 000 people are at risk of dying over the next four months, without an adequate response," Food and Nutrition Unit of the United Nations (FSNAU) says.
Half of those killed are children, he said.
Neighboring Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have also been affected by the severe lack of rain.
"Do not short-term"
But 20 years of struggle and the lack of a national government means that Somalia is by far the hardest hit.
UN authorities controlling the capital, Mogadishu, but few other areas.
Unni Karunakara, head of the medical charity Doctors Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said the al-Shabab restrictions on aid workers means a lot of people in Somalia, can not be helped - and said aid agencies should be more open about it when appealing for more money.
"The sad reality today is Somalia are unable to reach the southern and central Somalia, who consider it the epicenter of the crisis," he told the BBC World Service.
"What is needed is a better representation of the challenges that humanitarian organizations, including MSF, face in delivering aid to Somalia today.
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On stage
Will Ross
BBC News, Wajir
In a clearing of sand surrounded by leafless trees, people are lining up to help.
Food aid is reaching the Wajir region of Kenya, but not enough. The demand is huge, and so the religious leaders must choose the most vulnerable - are given only the desired blocks of rice, sugar, beans, flour and oil.
Schools are meant to be again this week, but there are a lot of empty seats, as some children are too weak to make the long walk to school.
"Children are demoralized, and many will not. The United Nations has reduced school lunch program and children can not learn without food, "said the father of five Mohammed Abdullahi.
In the hospital Griftu mother lay beside him malnourished four year old daughter. Listless and stick thin Ahad was fed through a tube. The nurses are hoping that in a month, will be out of danger.
"E 'Ward, now we have an average of six severely malnourished and 10 children every week. The numbers have increased. The drought is getting worse," said Dr. Cosmo NGI.
"Even if we can get food and supplies major ports in Somalia, I think it's a real challenge, which can provide assistance - what I call the" last "mile problem.
Some leaders of al-Shabab, which has links with al Qaeda, accused Western aid agencies of exaggerating the scale of the crisis for political reasons.
Tens of thousands of Somalis have fled the country to seek help.
BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says that even if there is rain in October or November, people will need food aid for several months until the crops have increased.
"This is not a crisis in the short term," said the Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN to Somalia, Mark Bowden.
In Kenya, Wajir district, right on the border of Somalia, the medical report of an increase in the number of malnourished children.
Weakened by lack of food, which are more susceptible to disease.
The drought continues to wreak havoc on livestock - people living in arid areas of Kenya depends on their animals for subsistence and rain is not expected for several weeks, the crisis deepens despite the presence of aid agencies, says our game.
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