EC announces US $15 million aid package

The European Commission announced on Thursday that it had agreed to provide a euro 17 million (US $15 million) humanitarian aid package for Sudan. "The new 'Global Plan' is a concrete expression of our commitment to help people who are among the most vulnerable on the planet," the European commissioner responsible for development and humanitarian aid, Poul Nielson, said in a statement. Projects funded under the 2002 Global Plan for Sudan would be implemented by a number of organisations, including nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, and Red Cross organisations, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) said. ECHO's priority areas for assistance in Sudan are: health and nutrition; water and sanitation; food security and emergency preparedness, according to the statement. In the field of health and nutrition, an estimated 660,000 people would benefit from assistance to improve primary health care, disease control, therapeutic feeding, the provision of medicines, and training for local staff, ECHO said. An additional 355,000 people would be assisted through water and sanitation projects, focusing on the regions where water shortages were most severe, it added. The strengthening of livestock support services would aim to improve food security for up to 700,000 people in southern Sudan, and some 35,000 pastoralists and displaced families in the northern part of the country, according to the statement. The general objective for ECHO in Sudan was to "prevent a further deterioration in the conditions of the most vulnerable sections of the population", with a special focus on internally displaced persons, the statement said. ECHO would also maintain its commitment to Operation Lifeline Sudan, the umbrella organisation grouping together UN agencies, NGOs, and other aid agencies which coordinates humanitarian operations in the country. "The plight of the Sudanese people is seldom in the headlines nowadays, but we have a duty to stay on course," Nielson said.