ERITREA - July 19 - UN Appeals For Humanitarian Aid.

The UN launches an appeal for humanitarian aid worth US$87.3m for 1.1m Eritreans displaced in the war with Ethiopia. 8 UN agencies based in Eritrea say in a new report that the money was required for the war displaced while a further US$13.4m was needed to assist Eritreans affected by a drought in the Greater Horn of Africa. UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Eritrea, Simon Nhongo, says: "Eritrea is facing a potentially catastrophic situation with large-scale population displacement and increasing impoverishment", adding: "This humanitarian appeal will help to meet the country's most critical humanitarian needs through the end of the year, but the disruption to agriculture and to the country's coping mechanisms means that Eritrea will need humanitarian assistance well into 2001". (The UN initially appealed for US$42m in January to help 584,000 Eritreans then affected by the 2-year-old border war with Ethiopia and drought. It says donors provided only about US$16m of that amount. But the number of people requiring assistance escalated after fighting flared up between the 2 neighbours from May 12 until June 18. A comprehensive peace deal is currently being negotiated to end the border conflict under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity and the UN.) Ivo Freijsen of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Eritrea says urgent assistance was needed given the "magnitude and urgency with which the Eritrean humanitarian crisis is unfolding". (The assistance needed includes food and agricultural inputs.)