UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the international community on Friday to provide 1.6 billion dollars in humanitarian assistance to Somalia's famine-stricken regions, dpa reported. "To save the lives of the people at risk - the vast majority of them women and children - we need approximately 1.6 billion dollars in aid," Ban said in an editorial published by the Los Angeles Times. "So far, international donors have given only half that amount. To turn the tide, to offer hope in the name of our common humanity, we must mobilize worldwide." The UN declared famine in parts of Somalia and other Horn of African countries this week. UN relief agencies met in Rome on Monday to coordinate activities to raise funds and meet emergency situations in Somalia. The UN warned at the same time that it was prevented rebel factions to deliver relief supplies in Somalia. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported from Geneva that 1,000 Somalis on a daily average were fleeing famine areas in the south and streaming into the capital Mogadishu seeking relief.
