Brussels, 21/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 20 December, the European Commission announced that a further €18 million worth of humanitarian aid would be allocated to Burma. The funding, which will be available in 2008, should support relief programmes for more than a million highly vulnerable people living in remote frontier areas (Rakhine, Shan, Mon and Kayin states, Sagaing and Thanintaryi divisions), as well as some 138,000 Burmese refugees living in camps in Thailand. For persons living in Burma, the aid will be used for: - the rehabilitation or installation of basic water and sanitation systems, and actions to promote hygiene; - continued support for the fight against malaria; - mobile supplementary feeding centres serving around 10,000 children and more than 2,000 women who are either pregnant, breastfeeding or caring for young children; - and efforts to ensure compliance with the international humanitarian rules that are designed to protect civilians and non-combatants in conflict situations. For the refugees in Thailand, the funds will cover: - food and cooking fuel for camp residents; - measures to tackle serious disease such as respiratory infections and diarrhoea; - supplementary feeding for children and mothers; - and action to improve reproductive and child health. (A.B.)