New appeal for “shattered communities”

The United Nations Country Team in Eritrea on Wednesday appealed for US $87.3 million for more than 1.1 million war-affected Eritreans. The revised appeal brings together the relief aid requirement of eight UN agencies providing food, farming aid, shelter and household items, water and sanitation, health and nutrition, education, psycho-social care, child protection, reintegration assistance and coordination support. The programmes are designed to provide immediate assistance to the most vulnerable and help Eritreans “return home to rebuild their shattered communities”, said a press release.

Eritrea faced “a potentially catastrophic situation with large-scale population displacement and increasing impoverishment”, said UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator, Simon R Nhongo. “The sooner that displaced Eritreans can return home to cultivate their land and resume their normal productive activities, the better able this seven year-old country will be to feed itself,” he said.

Under the joint appeal, WFP is targeting some 750,000 Eritreans who require more than 63,000 mt of food aid through to December 2000. It requested more than US $40 million for food, logistics and improvements to the port of Massawa to ensure that food supplies move smoothly into Eritrea. UNDP has requested US $15.4 million to provide tents, blankets and other household items. UNHCR required US $13.3 million for displaced populations. UNICEF has called for US $10.7 million to provide water and sanitation, health, immunization, nutrition, education and awareness programmes. Other requests include US $3.9 million for the UN Population Fund to provide maternal health care and programmes on general reproductive health, and US $1 million for the Food and Agriculture Organisation to provide seeds, tools and other agricultural inputs to farmers. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is appealing for US $892,000 to support humanitarian coordination mechanisms at both country and international level.

The new appeal more than doubled the last request of US $42 million in January. According to the press release, the new emergency resulted from “the recent upsurge in fighting and potentially disastrous humanitarian situation that has arisen since May”.