The Netherlands is holding a day of action to raise money for famine relief in Africa on Wednesday.

The campaign, which officially kicked off on Saturday, has already raised €17.5m, of which €2m came from the government.

The money will be spent on famine relief in southern Sudan, northeastern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen where some 20 million people face an acute shortage of food.

All day a panel of celebrities are manning the phones to accept donations and fund raising efforts have been organised all over the country. Their efforts are being monitored live on Radio 2.

The campaign for Africa is part of the Giro555 initiative, the bank account which Dutch aid groups use to collect funds. The last campaign, two years ago, raised €25m for victims of the Nepal earthquake.