The European Commission (EC) has adopted a plan to deliver €20 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan. The grant is part of a larger €78 million initiative to fund rehabilitation in North Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Coastal West Africa.
This 2004 plan will focus on meeting the food, shelter, health care and water and sanitation requirements of Sudan’s most vulnerable people. The Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) will target the four million people who have been displaced by conflict as well as vulnerable local communities.
The Sudanese population lacks basic services and their situation is made worse by insecurity and frequent natural disasters. Mortality rates for children under five are sometimes as high as 199/1000, and overall chronic malnutrition has risen over the past decade from 33 percent to 39 percent in rural areas. In some areas, people have no access to safe drinking water at all.
Sudan has been torn apart by civil war since 1983. The armed conflict has caused over two million deaths, resulted in the internal displacement of four million people, and created a substantial number of refugees. Furthermore, Sudan hosts 91,000 Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees. Lately the conflict in Darfur state has developed into a fully fledged complex emergency directly affecting the lives of approximately 600,000 people.
In less than 10 years, ECHO has allocated almost €220 million in assistance to both the North government-controlled areas and the South opposition-controlled areas of Sudan. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
