Relief agencies appeal for $157 m for 2005

Relief agencies have jointly appealed for nearly US $157.2 million to fund humanitarian activities in Eritrea in 2005, saying the country had continued to endure the aftermath of war, five years after the 1998 to 2000 border conflict with Ethiopia. The consequences of war included destroyed homes, mined villages, shattered livelihoods, hunger and malnutrition, the agencies said in their Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal (CAP) launched in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Tuesday. "With the travails of post-conflict resettlement, the period following the war has heralded a period of fragile peace, great hardship and competing urgent needs," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the appeal document. "Displacement of persons from their homes, loss of assets and economic impoverishment have been compounded by chronic drought resulting in five consecutive failed harvests and major losses in livestock," OCHA added. According to the appeal, donor response to what was asked for, especially in critical non-food requirements, had declined from 57 percent in 2003 to 38 percent in 2004, despite the continuing need for help. In 2004, of the 1.9 million vulnerable persons who required food aid, only 1.3 million received it, according to the appeal statement. Total food-aid needs, taking into account carry-over stocks from the previous year and commercial imports, have been identified as 505,000 mt. Of this total, 384,000 mt is the emergency-food aid requirement, of which, the UN World Food Programme will source 262,000 mt. Food shortages are the result of abnormal grain price increases, which in turn have exacerbating inflationary pressures, relief agencies said in their appeal. Thousands of households require seeds and tools to augment their agricultural production as well as livestock feed and healthcare, they added. They said that malnutrition continued to plague Eritreans, with 10-20 percent chronic malnutrition cases among infants and children in three of the country's six regions. Eritrea also has one of the highest maternal malnutrition rates in the world at 53 percent. The need for food aid, clean water, increased supplementary, and therapeutic feeding and maternal healthcare remains acute, the agencies said. They also noted that more than 70,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and expellees remained temporarily in unsustainable camps. The government has recently committed itself to the return and resettlement of 30,000 IDPs and expellees, for which funding is critical, they added. Over one million Eritrean IDPs and refugees, who have returned to their home villages since the end of the border conflict, are unable to restore their livelihoods and remain dependent on humanitarian assistance. Twenty percent of areas for IDP returnees are mine-infested, rendering demining activities a key priority, according to the agencies. They said that in 2005, the humanitarian response should include greater investment in health, water, durable shelter, sanitation and support for IDPs.