The extensive drought sweeping across southern Somalia has forced at least 1,000 families to abandon their homes in Lower Juba and seek refuge in the port city of Kismayo, some 500 km south of the capital, Mogadishu, local leaders have said.

The Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), which controls parts of the Juba valley and Kismayo, said the displaced people were particularly in need of food aid.

"Over 1,000 families who lost their livelihoods have arrived in Kismayo," said Abdirahman Waldireh, second deputy chairman and head of the JVA social affairs committee, on Tuesday. "They are in desperate circumstances, with absolutely nothing. They have lost all of their livestock."

Many parts of Lower and Middle Juba and Gedo have been hit by serious food and water shortages, pushing people to seek help in towns like Kismayo. "We are expecting more people to come because they believe that Kismayo still has water and food," he added.

The JVA had set up a committee to assist the drought victims and appealed for members of the local community to help the new arrivals. "We have to help ourselves first, before we ask others to help. It may not be much, but we can all contribute," Waldireh said. "Many of the residents of Kismayo are in as bad a situation as the displaced. They need urgent help from the international community."

The first priority was to provide shelter, water and food to the displaced people, who had set up makeshift camps along the Kismayo-Mogadishu highway to the north of the city.

"Some of the new arrivals are malnourished, with children and the elderly most affected," he said. "These are people who have exhausted all of their coping mechanisms and are in urgent need of help."

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said major water sources had either dried up or were low because of the extensive drought in Gedo, Lower and Middle Juba and parts of the Bay and Bakool regions of Somalia. There was very little grazing land, and livestock - particularly cattle - were dying.

"In some areas it is feared that up to 80 percent of livestock may die," the ICRC said. The agency had observed "an unusual movement of people towards the riverine areas of Middle and Lower Juba."