“High time” donors responded to emergency appeals

The war with Ethiopia has resulted in some quarter of a million Eritreans being displaced from rural areas along battle fronts with Ethiopia, and an estimated 58,000 more deported from Ethiopia, such that local communities can no longer cope and “thousands of farmers, traders and their families have been forced to seek refuge under trees, in dry river beds or simply by the roadside”, a statement from the NGO Refugees International said on Thursday. Some of the most vulnerable IDP populations are in the semi-desert of Gash Darka and Debub, where they are not easily accessible to aid workers and suffer extremes of heat by day and cold by night, the agency said. While sanitation and water supplies were priority considerations for the IDPs, food was also in short supply and there were virtually no drugs, educational outlets for children, household utensils or cooking oil, Refugees International said. “Donor response to emergency appeals by ERREC [Eritrea Relief and Rehabilitation Committee] has to date been very poor” and it was now “high time” donors responded by committing funds to ERREC, the UN country team and “those NGOs that are willing and able to operate in Eritrea”, the agency added.