Brussels, 05/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Union is increasing its emergency aid to the victims of Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines by €7 million. The decision was announced on Tuesday 5 March and brings total humanitarian funding up to €10 million (through the European Commission's humanitarian aid service, ECHO) to cover the immediate needs of the most vulnerable people in the region since the typhoon struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in December.
The aid will be channelled through ECHO's partners on the ground and will go towards repairing houses, providing food and nutritional assistance (the level of malnutrition is particularly high among children) and improving basic health services.
“The typhoon that struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao in early December caused some of the worst damage since typhoon Ketsana in 2009”, said EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva. Three months later, hundreds of thousands of survivors still face extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.
The decision to provide additional funds follows on from an evaluation of requirements carried out by ECHO experts who visited the area hit by the typhoon last month and who highlighted serious shortcomings in the organisation of rescue operations. Typhoon Bopha affected the lives of more than 6 million people. 1,000 people were killed, 850 disappeared and around 250,000 houses and buildings destroyed, as well as thousands of hectares of agricultural land, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without food or income. After the typhoon, the region was hit by strong storms again, which provoked further landslides and flooding. (AN/transl.fl)