EC grant for drought-affected pastoralists

The European Commission has announced a grant of €1 million (about US $1.2 million) to Ethiopia for an estimated 25,000 pastoralists in drought-affected areas such as the Somali region in the east, the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.

The funds were intended to improve access to water by pastoralist communities, improve health services and address problems of malnutrition, the EC said. Support would also be given to improve livestock health so as to provide a basic milk supply.

"The extensive drought in 2003 has heightened vulnerability in Ethiopia, where new emergency needs have quickly emerged this year," the EC said. "The failure of rains in areas such as the Somali region has exhausted water supplies. Drought has resulted in the depletion of available pasture and loss of livestock... and consequently the loss of milk - the staple food supply for pastoralist populations."

Pastoralists in the remote Somali region and along the border with Kenya in the south have faced critical shortages of pasture and water for their animals since the rains failed in November. The Deyr rains, normally expected in October, and vital to pastoralists, came late.

The EC also announced a €4 million grant to Chad to provide relief to about 110,000 Sudanese refugees from the western Darfur region. The focus, it added, would be to provide health care, nutrition programmes, drinking water, sanitary facilities, shelter and other relief items.