The international children's charity UNICEF estimates due to drought and hunger that 1.5 million children could die if they do not receive urgent assistance.

The Hollywood actress and teen idol is the latest celebrity to back UNICEF's campaign to save lives in the Sahel region of Africa. In her direct and emotional appeal the teen star urges fans to support the children's charity to save lives.

"Right now more than a million people could die in the Sahel region of West and central Africa, she explains.

"Crops have failed in eight drought hit countries leaving families with almost nothing to eat.

"Children are especially vulnerable when they don't get the nutrition they need.

"UNICEF urgently needs your help to buy therapeutic food and medicine to treat the most sick and malnourished children. They can save their lives."

Selena Gomez was appointed a UNICEF Ambassador in 2009, becoming the youngest UNICEF Ambassador in the USA working on behalf of the charity's campaigns.

The star joined other UNICEF USA actress ambassadors including Lucy Liu and Sarah Jessica Parker. Gomez quickly set about highlighting the problems facing children in Africa.

In her first visit to Africa on behalf of the charity she visited Ghana which suffers high mortality rates for children under five. There the actress witnessed UNICEF programmes trying to alleviate suffering.

The charity's global mission is to end the daily preventable 25,000 deaths of children...

Selena Gomez has also been involved in other field trips for UNICEF including a visit to Chile where she drew attention to UNICEF's poverty relief campaigns there, supporting families. The star has also been seen actively promoting UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign which encourages kids to fundraise for UNICEF at Halloween.

Of the Sahel campaign UNICEF and other international charities have been warning of the seriousness of the food crisis in the region for months. The charity UNICEF now regards the situation as verging on the catastrophic, with children at risk in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Nigeria, Niger and Senegal.

Gomez is one of many UNICEF celebrity supporters calling for an urgent response to the food crisis in West Africa that is being described as a growing scandal.

The appeal by Gomez follows fellow actor and UNICEF UK Ambassador Ralph Fiennes's call earlier this month in which he reported how despite the growing humanitarian problem, the charity's Sahel Now appeal was still drastically underfunded...