The European Commission has cleared a project to supply victims of conflict in Cambodia with emergency food aid and shelter worth 500,000 ECU. The aid, to be channelled via the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), will enable the French non-governmental organisation Action Nord Sud to carry out a project in the north-western provinces of Cambodia over the next six months.

The provinces targeted were hit by disastrous floods last autumn. These destroyed the rice harvest in some very isolated villages making life there very precarious for villagers.

This project will provide emergency food aid such as rice, fish and oil. Villagers will receive rations in return for taking part in work to rehabilitate refuges designed to shelter people under attack, or in case of natural disasters.

Some 3,750 families in the provinces of Battambang, Bantey Meanchey and Siem Reap in the north west of Cambodia are expected to benefit from this project.