Emergency aid worth 10 million European Currency Units (Ecu) has been earmarked for over a million people in and around Chechnya. This new European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) grant covers both food and medical aid, including rehabilitation of damaged hospitals. It is intended to help provide a return to normality to the extent this is possible in the aftermath of conflict there.

* Food: ECHO plans to work with the World Food Programme and members of the Red Cross to distribute food worth three million Ecu. It is also organising special food supplies worth about a million Ecu for those most in need. The plan is to work with two nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), Equilibre (France) and Feed the Children (UK).

* Medical supplies, rehabilitation: ECHO plans to work with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Medecins sans Frontieres (Belgium and France), the United Nations Children's Fund, (UNICEF) and Merlin, a British NGO, on re-establishing water supplies and providing primary health care. They will carry out projects worth about seven million Ecu.

Since fighting broke out in December, practically everyone in this Autonomous Republic, with its population of 1.2 million, has had their lives shattered. Many fled to neighbouring Ingushetia, to Dagestan or even further afield. Many of those who stayed within the confines of Chechyna itself have been displaced. People are now returning to the capital, Grozny, and are struggling to survive in a devasted city whose entire infrastructure has been destroyed.

An ECHO team is currently in the region to work out details of this project, which was based on a needs assessment mission carried out last February. This action has been launched on the basis that ECHO can ensure it is possible to deliver aid safely to points at which it is most needed. The current mission will also assess future needs. This grant is ECHO's fourth for humanitarian aid in the northern Caucasus since fighting broke out in Chechnya. Previous allocations totalled 10.31 million Ecu.