EC boosts emergency aid

The European Commission is to increase its emergency aid to Eritrea - which is in the grip of a devastating drought - to over 15 million euros by the end of this year. An EC statement, issued on Tuesday, said the Commission was preparing a €10 million emergency food aid assistance programme to be adopted before the end of the year. The new contribution is equivalent to about 40,000 mt of cereals, which will be available in the country starting from March 2003, it said. "This comes in addition to the food aid assistance already provided during the last quarter of 2002 (€5.8 million or 15,000 mt)," the statement said. "This new contribution will bring the total EC emergency aid to the present crisis in Eritrea up to €15.8 million for 2002." "Member States are bilaterally providing €10.2 million in humanitarian aid and food aid in response to the present crisis in Eritrea, bringing the total EU amount to €26 million," it added. The cereals will be allocated directly to the government's aid department - the Eritrean Relief and Refugees Commission (ERREC). "While relief is crucial to save lives, both government and donors agree that the situation over the long term will not improve just with emergency food aid," the statement noted. "The crisis can only be adequately addressed if, in parallel to the emergency response, substantial efforts are devoted to tackle the structural problems." The move follows a report by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warning that 2.8 million people -over half the Eritrean population - are facing pre-famine conditions. A fifth of the population is immediately confronting food shortages which are leading to critical levels of malnutrition among children, the report stressed.