Brussels, 01/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 1 July, the European Commission announced that the EU is to mobilise €15 million in emergency humanitarian aid for the vulnerable people who are hit by the conflict in East Ukraine.
The funding will give a significant boost to the ongoing aid operations by covering the vital needs (food, hygiene kits, blankets, health care, water and shelter) of 5 million people in need of assistance.
European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides was visiting Ukraine and said he was very concerned about “the continued fighting in Ukraine's Donbas, despite the ceasefire agreement”. He called for the respect of humanitarian law and said that “it's essential that humanitarian aid gets to all vulnerable people affected by the conflict”. “Humanitarian organisations need to have safe and speedy access to the conflict areas”, he said in a press release.
This additional funding brings the aid mobilised by the Commission in response to this crisis to €62 million (humanitarian aid and rapid reconstruction assistance) and to over €223 million for the aid provided by the EU (Commission plus member states) since the start of 2014.
On Wednesday, the World Food Programme (WFP), one of the Commission's humanitarian partners on the ground (with the agencies of the UN and NGOs), announced it would scale up its emergency operation in the region to provide food aid to 500,000 people until the end of the year. These 500,000 people are in three additional regions (Kharkivska, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya) as well as in Donestsk and Luhansk. (Aminata Niang)