CRISIS IN AZERBAIJAN: ECHO RESPONDS WITH OVER SIX MILLION ECUS IN AID

Azerbaijanis struggling to survive below the breadline should get some relief soon thanks to an aid package worth over six million European Currency Units (Ecu). The European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) has approved humanitarian aid for a country plunged into crisis in the wake of conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the socio-economic consequences of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Some 60 per cent of Azerbaijan's 7.4 million people are in dire poverty, and as many as one in seven have been forced to flee their homes as a consequence of the Karabakh conflict. The action, for which ECHO has allocated a total of 6.545 million Ecu, will focus on providing shelter, fuel and clothes, healthcare and sanitation. Projects are scheduled to last a maximum of six months.

o The projects: There are currently over 70,000 people trying to survive under canvas. They badly need clothes, fuel, basic sanitation and water supplies. Prefabricated shelters will be provided for approximately 10,000 people. Urgent repairs to hospitals and healthcentres are another priority, as well as providing medical supplies and a vaccination programme.

ECHO's partners are Medecins Sans Frontieres-Belgium, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC), Asistencia Medica Internacional (Portugal), Oxfam (UK), Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (Germany), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Stighting Vluchteling (Netherlands).