With more than $1 billion in aid still needed, images emerging from the Horn of Africa of starving women and children must serve as a “wake-up call” to donors, said the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator today, as she briefed correspondents on that region’s worst drought in 60 years.

The Secretary-General is saddened by the death of four peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei, who were killed by a landmine detonation during a patrol in Mabok. He also expressed concern for the well-being of the seven other peacekeepers injured in the explosion.

With the situations in Syria, Libya and Somalia becoming increasingly more worrisome, and attention needed on peacekeeping and other issues, the usually light August agenda of the Security Council was quickly filling up, the permanent representative of India, which holds presidency of the body for the month, said this afternoon.

The World Food Programme welcomes a surge in donations as it scales up its operations and assistance to those affected by drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. In recent days, the Programme has received more than $250 million in pledges from Governments, companies and individuals.

At Kenya’s Dadaab camps, the UN refugee agency says that arrivals of Somalis for July topped 40,000, the highest monthly rate in the camp’s 20-year history. A mass screening for malnutrition conducted in the Dadaab complex showed alarmingly high rates of acute malnutrition and an increasing under-5 mortality rate.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that unless there is a massive increase in the humanitarian response, famine in Somalia could rapidly spread to more areas in the south. Relief organizations are reaching only about 20 per cent of the 2.8 million people in urgent need of food aid in that region.

Looking back over an “intense” three-year tenure at the helm of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, outgoing Under-Secretary-General Alain Le Roy said that, despite some shortcomings, blue helmets should be credited for their achievements in reducing the scale of conflicts around the world.

A peacekeeper serving the African Union-United Nations mission in Darfur was killed and a second one was seriously wounded when their vehicle was attacked by unknown gunmen this morning in Duma village, in South Darfur. The mission says that the attack is a deplorable act and that it is working with the Sudanese police to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

With more than 200,000 people having fled the Sudanese army’s operations in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, along with the decimation of crops and evidence of mass graves, a cleric from the province and representatives of international civil society called this afternoon on the Security Council to act.

The Secretary-General, in Fukushima, expressed sadness at the loss of lives, but was encouraged by the determination and resilience of the Japanese people and Government. “You are united. You are overcoming this tragedy,” he told the people of Fukushima.