The United Nations Children's Agency (UNICEF) has warned of unprecedented numbers of child deaths in Somalia as the country faces a historic drought.

UNICEF Spokesperson, James Elder, at a press briefing on Tuesday, laid out the disturbing situation in the country.

"Today in Somalia, every single minute of every single day, a child is admitted to a health facility for treatment of severe acute malnutrition," he said.

“The latest admission rates from August show 44,000 children admitted with severe acute malnutrition. That is a child per minute."

Elder noted that while the crisis had affected all groups of people, children were the most affected.

He pointed out that "Somalia is on the brink of a tragedy at a scale not seen in decades."

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the current drought is the worst seen in Somalia in the past four decades.

Country Director for FAO in Somalia, Etienne Peterschmitt told reporters earlier in October the drought has affected 7.8 million people – about half of Somalia’s population.

"90 percent of the country is facing extreme drought," he said.

"In a country where access to the most vulnerable is continually hampered by terrorism and threats to aid workers, we fear many thousands more children are not reaching the support they need," Elder said in his Tuesday briefing.

"When people speak of the crisis facing Somalia today, it has become common for frightful comparisons to be made with the famine of 2011 when 260,000 people died. However, everything I am hearing on the ground – from nutritionists to pastoralists – is that things today actually look worse," he added.

The UNICEF Spokesperson said the agency was working on the ground to save lives but noted that it is experiencing funding challenges. He said UNICEF's three-year appeal to help families and their communities build resilience in the Horn of Africa region is currently just 3 percent funded.

"Without greater action and investment, we are facing the death of children on a scale not seen in half a century," he warned.