EU increased humanitarian aid to the Central African Republic by €18.5

The European Commission is increasing its humanitarian aid by €18.5 million to the Central African Republic (CAR) to provide immediate life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable suffering from the crisis. The funds will support immediate life-saving activities such as distribution of essential food and survival items as well as providing shelter, health, protection, water, hygiene and sanitation. The support will be channeled through the European Commission’s humanitarian partners in the country, including UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. €8.5million of the new funding will be committed immediately before the end of this year, while €10 million will be programmed from 1 January 2014. The additional aid will bring the EU’s emergency relief to CAR this year to €39 million.

EU Commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs added: “The immediate needs are so huge that the EU has the moral obligation to do all it can to provide immediate support and relief to the people who are suffering from a situation which is not of their choosing. This is why I have decided to mobilize an extra €10 million from the European Development Fund for humanitarian support to CAR. The time will come for development and reconstruction and the EU will still be there.”

To boost humanitarian efforts, the European Commission has deployed its humanitarian air service ECHO Flight to open up a vital line of support into and out of Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic (CAR). The CRJ 200 jet aircraft performs daily rotations between Bangui and Douala in Cameroon to ferry humanitarian goods and personnel into the country.In addition, the European Commission has organized an air lift operation from Europe, which delivered 37 tons of relief supplies to Bangui.

 Caption: thousands of civilians have left Bangui, the troubled capital of CAR, in the last few weeks only

 Photo: Reuters