UNHCR seeks humanitarian funding

UNHCR said this week it would require US $23 million to assist an estimated 100,000 Eritreans recently forced to flee their homes in the border war with Ethiopia.

In a statement on Wednesday, UNHCR said it was seeking US $13.2 million to assist internally displaced persons inside Eritrea. The remainder of the funding would be allocated to refugees who fled Eritrea to neighbouring Djibouti, Sudan, and Yemen. “This region, already severely affected by drought, is now facing a new humanitarian crisis as many hundreds of thousands of uprooted people sufficient shelter and assistance,” said UN Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata. A spokesman, Peter Kessler, said UNHCR mobile emergency teams operating in Eritrea and other relief agencies faced considerable logistical and operational hurdles in assisting the displaced people.
“Broad swathes of southern and southwest Eritrea are occupied by Ethiopian forces which are unlikely to pull back until the deployment of UN and organisation of African Unity (OAU) peacekeepers,” Kessler said. “Thousands have fled the occupied regions.”