European Commission makes final humanitarian donation

The European Commission (EC) is ending its humanitarian aid programme to Tajikistan – the poorest former Soviet country - by making a final donation of US $6.4 million, a communications officer with the European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) office in Dushanbe told IRIN. "This is the last grant aid to Tajikistan within the framework of the three-year programme that started on June 2004," Azamat Khasanov said. The first two grants - $10.3 million and $7.7 millions - were made in 2004 and 2005. ECHO has decided to reduce its aid to Tajikistan because it has recovered sufficiently from the 1992-1997 civil war, which killed more than 100,000 people and destroyed most of the infrastructure in the country of 7 million. "This aid will be directed to several international NGOs programmes in health, food security and water and sanitation spheres," Khasanov said. Since 1992 ECHO has given more than $192 million to the republic, mostly in the form of food aid during the civil war.