The Secretary General made a series of calls to the rulers of Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to "stress the paramount need"
to help, a UN statement said.
His comments came as a plane carrying 10 tons of nutritional supplements meant
to treat malnourished children in famine-hit Somalia has taken off from
neighbouring Kenya.
Challiss McDonough, a World Food Program spokesman, said this is first of
several planned airlifts in coming weeks. She said the shipment of peanut
butter-based nutritional paste will treat 3,500 malnourished children for
one month.
Mr Ban "received overall positive responses from his interlocutors who
expressed concern at the prevailing situation and committed to consider
providing additional help", it added.
Western aid agencies are mostly barred from operating in the areas of southern
Somalia which are worst affected by two years of drought, including two
famine zones.
Islamic organisations have been given more access. Their increasing food
handouts in two regions, Bay and Bakool, could be one of a series of factors
slowing the fleeing of Somalis from their homes, the UN said on Wednesday.
There are still up to 100,000 such 'internally displaced' people who have
arrived in Mogadishu in the last two months alone.
Almost f500m has been raised for the UN's consolidated drought appeal, but
more than f700m still remains unpledged, new figures released on Wednesday
show.
With access barred to many of the largest international organisations, aid
agencies from Islamic countries are being asked to increase their efforts to
help the 2.8 million Somalis living in Islamist-controlled areas.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is preparing to hand out WFP food
along the Afgoye corridor south of Mogadishu for 40,000 people.
A Turkish humanitarian group is helping 2,000 families in the capital's
Dharkenleey district, and the Kuwait Red Crescent has sent two aircraft
carrying 20 tonnes of food, medicine and tents.
Qatar Charity, which gave more than f130,000 for 14,000 people in Mogadishu,
and has launched an appeal for more.
A team from the United Arab Emirates is on its way to Mogadishu to help
coordinate food and medicine supplies to affected people.
