Brussels, 25/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - €70 million is the additional funding that was approved on Thursday by the European Parliament's budgets committee to meet humanitarian needs in Syria, Mali, the Sahel region and Chad. This additional funding will be allocated as follows:
Syria. €19.5 million (coming on top of previous aid of over €300 million) to provide food, protection, shelter, medical supplies and psychological support for displaced persons and refugees in neighbouring countries, as well as for Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Syria, and Lebanese and Iraqi returnees.
Mali. €12 million to step up existing food and health projects (€2 million will go to the World Food Programme and €5 million to the Red Cross) to prepare for the expected return of displaced persons and to replace the stocks looted by Jihadists, and to improve humanitarian access (€2 million for transport, demining operations and civil-military coordination).
Sahel. €30 million to help tackle its food and nutrition crisis (10 million people lack secure food supplies and over one million children are suffering from acute malnutrition.
Chad. €8 million, part of which will go to the World Food Programme to supply food to 425,000 people for four months, starting in June. (AN/transl.fl)