Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, calls for help in fighting poverty and instability in Somalia

"To end piracy in Somalia, we need to find and address the real causes of the problem" have said today Ban Ki-Moon and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso during the Donor Conference for Somalia that started today in Brussels.

Both leaders rely on fundraising to go to the roots of piracy: poverty and political instability.

"If we only treat the symptoms but not the root causes, the decline of the state and poverty, we will fail," said Barroso at a press conference with Ban Ki-Moon minutes before starting the Donor Conference for Somalia.

During the opening of the meeting, attended by 43 nations, Barroso stressed that the immediate purpose today is to raise funds for the security sector and the African Union mission in Somalia for the next twelve months.

Ben Affleck “Gimme Shelter” video launches UNHCR campaign for displaced Congolese:

Renewed violence in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has triggered a humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 250,000 people to flee for their lives. The fighting brings a forgotten tragedy back to the world's attention.

The “Gimme Shelter” film made to support the campaign was directed by American actor-director Ben Affleck and filmed by John Toll. Both are US Academy Award winners. It includes footage shot in DRC’s strife-torn North Kivu province during Affleck's fourth visit to the region in November 2008. The film is set to the classic Rolling Stones song, Gimme Shelter, which the group donated to the campaign.

UNHCR hopes the Gimme Shelter campaign will help raise US$23 million in 2009 to pay for clean water supplies and emergency humanitarian assistance kits for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese.