Brussels, 17/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved 6 million in humanitarian aid to victims of the conflict in northern Uganda. The funds, to be taken from the Echo budget, will pay for support activities to the primary healthcare system: hospitals and dispensaries, nutrition centres, programmes to raise awareness of HIV and Aids, provision of drinking water and sanitation, food safety projects, psycho-social support programmes for child soldiers. The money will help 1.6 million people who have been displaced within the country due to the unrest in the north, and some 40,000 children who have been forced to hide out to escape forcible recruitment by rebel groups.
This decision brings to 12 million the total humanitarian aid Echo has channelled into northern Uganda in 2004.