The United Nations has described East Africa's drought as an emergency, one phase before famine, with more than 10 million people forced to rely on urgent food aid.

Here's a round-up of what some aid agencies are saying about the crisis, its impact and the responses to it:

Tungsten, gold and other minerals used in consumer electronics come from all over the world, but one troubled African nation is a primary international supplier. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) provides much of the tantalum, tin and other precious metals used by dozens of manufacturers in the cell phones and laptops we use every day.

Today, the world welcomes its newest country: the Republic of South Sudan. This new nation in the heart of Africa is the historic result of a peaceful, popular vote on independence, in which roughly 99% of people living in Sudan's southern regions elected to split from the Northern, Arab government that had ruled over them -- and engaged in a brutal civil war against them -- for decades.

There were not too many women involved in the main programme of events to mark the independence of South Sudan on Saturday but that does not mean women did not contribute their fair share to the hard-fought liberation of the country.

They were key members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), with one entire battalion branded the “girls battalion” being led by the noted female commander, Agier Agum.

Women Constituent Assembly (CA) members underlined the need to specify constitutional provision in the new constitution to grant citizenship certificate based on gender equality.

The European Union will provide $3.5m to help care for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo under an agreement signed Monday.

The cash will go towards “appropriate medical care” for victims of sexual attacks in the east of the country, the EU said in a statement – an area where almost 250 women say they were raped by deserting soldiers last month.

Female refugees fleeing conflict and hunger in East Africa are facing another threat: rape and sexual violence. According to UNHCR reports, the numbers of sexual and gender-based violence cases have quadrupled: 358 incidents reported from January until June 2011, in comparison with 75 during the same period in 2010. At CARE's reception centre in two of the refugee camps numbers have more than doubled.

The World YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) hosted its fourth International Women's Summit (IWS) in Zurich, Switzerland from 12-13 July 2011. The event brought together more than 1 000 participants from over 100 countries to discuss issues facing women and girls today ranging from gender inequality, young women's sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV to the social and economic dimensions of violence against women.

Tibetan Women's Association (TWA), the largest women's organisation in exile submitted a report on the treatment of Tibetan women in Nepal to a UN body that monitors women's right worldwide.

In a release Tuesday, TWA said that the report was presented at the ongoing 49th session of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in New York.

Four Afghan women are in Texas training to become among the first female pilots in the Afghan Air Force.

The four women, all in the early 20s, are breaking the mold in male-dominated Afghanistan as foreign troops continue to help build the nation's military. The only female pilot now in the Afghan Air Force is almost 40 and a holdover from the Soviet era.