Eritrean Commission says 1.5 million people displaced

Commissioner of the Eritrean Relief and Refugee Commission (ERRC) Worku Tesfamikael said on Tuesday that more than 1.5 million people had been displaced by the Ethiopian invasion, Eritrean radio reported. She said that while the government was helping the displaced with the provision of food and basic necessities, the ERRC had appealed to the international community for urgent humanitarian assistance. The response so far had been very low compared to the magnitude of the problem, but aid was coming in.

International humanitarian sources said it was very hard to get an accurate estimate of the numbers of people involved, because the displaced were constantly on the move, scattered and partly in hiding. They said it was clear that ERREC was overstretched and in need of further assistance. In a statement on Tuesday Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) said it was airlifting 27 mt of emergency medical aid to Asmara, with two volunteers to reinforce the first MSF team, a doctor and an administrator, sent into Eritrea on 21 May. More volunteers were on standby in Nairobi, ready to fly into Asmara over the coming days, the statement said.

A WFP plane arrived in Asmara with further food supplies on Wednesday. Spokesperson Christiane Berthiaume said on Tuesday that the agency would deliver 80 mt of high energy biscuits to Asmara by the end of the week, to supplement stocks sent in earlier. She said that if military conditions allowed, the WFP hoped to transport 300 tonnes of the biscuits to the displaced - enough to feed 500,000 for a week. But the WFP warned that the problem went beyond the short term provision of food. Spokesperson Lindsey Davies said that the majority of the displaced were from the main grain-producing areas of Eritrea. If the displaced were not able to return to their homes in time for planting, the next harvest could be wiped out. In Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson Lyn Geldof said that as a result, Eritrea would probably be dependent on food aid for a year.