Brussels, 02/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission approved the granting of emergency humanitarian aid of EUR 1.675 million to the regions of Ethiopia hit by drought. Taken from the ECHO budget (Community humanitarian aid office), this amount will finance the implementation operations by international agencies and non governmental organisation to come to the aid of 2 million people for a period of seven months. Targeted here is: - support for emergency nutritional intervention by Medecins sans Frontiere Belgique in the most affected area of the Somalia region; - provision and distribution of medication ensured by UNICEF; - improvement of the coordination of operations and the provision of aerial logistics for improve access for operations and the security of humanitarian agencies in the southern regions, in the framework of the world food programme.
This new financing increases to EUR 6.965 million the total amount of aid paid by ECHO to Ethiopia since the start of the crisis.