World Bank boosts Horn of Africa aid to $1.88 billion

An internally displaced Somali woman holds her malnourished child inside their temporary home in Hodan district, south of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, September 20, 2011.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Saturday it was more than tripling funding to $1.88 billion for a "worsening" drought in Horn of Africa countries affecting over 13 million people.

The funding is boosted from around $500 million the World Bank announced in July.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the financing would help fill a $1 billion funding gap needed to tackle drought and a food crisis engulfing parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Uganda.

The United Nations estimates some $2.4 billion in aid is needed for immediate drought relief assistance. While international appeals have drawn $1.4 billion in donor pledges, there is still a gap of $1 billion.

Zoellick said the World Bank funding would be allocated in three phases following initial needs assessments conducted by bank experts in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somali refugee camps and Uganda.

Somalia is at the epicenter of the hunger crisis. The U.N. has said about 750,000 people face imminent starvation in Somalia where the al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, al Shabaab, controls much of the south and will not allow food shipments in.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)