UN official urges more aid for displaced people

A senior UN official on Friday appealed for increased aid for displaced Eritreans. Carolyn McAskie, the acting emergency relief coordinator, described the situation in Eritrea as “dire”, noting that the latest fighting had taken place in the country’s “bread basket” region. “With the window for the annual planting season rapidly closing with the approach of the rainy season, there will be a need for external food aid for at least one year,” she said, in a statement issued in New York. UNHCR on Sunday began the latest in a series of airlifts into Asmara, bringing in blankets and other supplies. Also on Sunday, UNHCR and the Eritrean authorities evacuated 1,228 Somali refugees from the port of Assab, to a transit centre outside Massawa. UNHCR said the Somalis had been stuck in Assab and virtually cut off from aid since fighting resumed between Ethiopia and Eritrea in mid-May. One hundred refugees decided to stay in Assab, the agency added.