EU: Press Release on Somalia Famine Crisis
The European Union made a press release regarding the European response to the drought-related crisis in Somalia and the rest of the East African Countries– It reads:
MEMO/06/130 Brussels, 20 March 2006
Drought conditions caused by the failure of the rains for some years in a row have put millions of people at risk of starvation in the Horn of Africa. Countries affected include Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. These seven countries form IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Food security is one of the issues on which IGAD focuses. Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, attends the 11th summit of IGAD Heads of State and Government taking place in Nairobi today. During the summit, he will make proposals on the strengthening of regional cooperation and will hold a number of bilateral meetings with the Heads of State and Government of the region. In addition, Louis Michel will address the problem of the drought in Kenya and the Horn of Africa and will announce a further decision of €5 million to increase the European Commission’s response (see IP/06/336).  So far, the Commission has allocated €78 million for drought-related interventions in response to the crisis. It has a two-pronged approach involving the provision of relief assistance under the humanitarian aid budget (€17 million to date) and of support aimed at tackling the effects of the drought in the medium and longer term (€61 million). The latter involves financing mainly from the food aid/food security budget line and from the European Development Fund (EDF).
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