Nearly £50m has been donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee East Africa appeal as the organisation warns that the crisis is likely to worsen before it improves.

During a week in which the British news media was saturated with coverage of rioting which broke out in cities around the country, the organisation still raised nearly £7m. DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said that the public response to the foreign crisis during this time had been strong.  

“At a time when the UK’s reputation is in the global spotlight for the wrong reasons, the British people can be rightly proud that they are world leaders in responding to acute need,” he said.

The appeal has now been running for more than a month.