Consolidated Appeal for 2002 launched

The United Nations country team on Tuesday launched its Consolidated Appeal (CA) for Eritrea for the year 2002, requesting a total of US $120 million to fund a series of emergency and reintegration programmes drawn up by 11 UN agencies and partner NGOs. While food aid for vulnerable war and drought-affected populations comprises the bulk of the required assistance in 2002, medium and long-term programmes, particularly those targeting the return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), are being given equal importance. Comparing this current appeal with last year's, Muktar Ali Farah, a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told IRIN that "Eritrea's CA 2002 marks the transition from relief to reintegration". Whereas an estimated 1.6 million people, or 50 percent of the population, were judged to be in need of emergency assistance in 2001, the World Food Programme has appealed for resources to feed only half that number in 2002, an improved harvest this year having abated the spectre of continued drought. The current appeal will next year focus primarily on the plight of the IDPs resulting from the recent border war with Ethiopia - including people who have recently been able to return home and as those remaining in IDP camps. Muktar Ali Farah told IRIN that with the arrival of more than 4,000 UN peacekeeping troops, and the establishment of the Temporary Security Zone, which skirts the disputed border area, 170,000 IDPs had helped to return to their home areas. He added, however, that to date more than 70,000 remained unable to return home. "These people are unable to return to their homes due to the prevalence of land mines and unexploded ordnance, because their homes have been destroyed, or because, in some cases, their villages are still under Ethiopian control," said Farah. As a consequence, more than US $8 million of the appeal will be set aside for mine clearance. In addition to the IDPs, there are also a growing number of refugees returning from Sudan. Wendy Rappeport, an external relations officer for the office of the United Nations Hish Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told IRIN that as of last week, 26,000 of a total Eritrean refugee population in Sudan of more than 300,000 had already returned this year - a figure which she hoped would rise to 62,000 by the end of the year. Next year, UNHCR hopes to repatriate a further 90,000, and has appealed for donations totalling $28 million to achieve this goal. In this context, the UN country team will focus on return, reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes in non-food sectors, worth over $66 million in all. The primary goals will be to support ongoing efforts to effect the safe and expeditious return of IDPs and refugees, support the resumption of farming and other income-generating activities, complement government efforts to restore basic social and community services and, most importantly, to phase out emergency operations and effect a transition to development activities. For texts of the various appeals and country strategies see http://www.reliefweb.int/appeals/2002.html