European Commission to donate over US $15 million

The European Commission (EC) is to donate US $15.3 million in humanitarian aid to Burundi, a press release from the EC stated on Friday.

The money would be channelled through the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), and be distributed among aid agencies, UN agencies and the Red Cross to cover the most pressing humanitarian needs and pave the way for structural aid, the EC said in a statement.

"The relief situation in Burundi remains worrying owing to the fighting inside the country and a particularly turbulent regional context," said the statement, referring to the conflict in the country since 1993. Compounding matters, the country was hit by a severe food shortage in 2001, which showed just how vulnerable its people were, the statement added.

Health, nutrition, food security, sanitation and the distribution of basic necessities remained the priorities for 2002, the EC said. The operations financed by ECHO would take place in the central, northern and western provinces. There would also be operations in some southeastern provinces, which had received little aid in the past because of the violence, the statement said. Significantly, these were the areas to which most Burundians, estimated at over 800,000 in number, would return from camps in Tanzania, the statement added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there are over 375,000 people currently living in officially recognised displacement sites in Burundi, and a possible 100,000 living outside displacement sites, who are intermittently displaced.

The EC grant brings humanitarian aid to Burundi since 1993 to over US $200 million.