In contrast, ERREC is appealing for a further US$52 million to cover the food aid requirements of the urban poor and other groups. The UN appeal is made up of US $103 million for food aid (WFP) to support 1.76 million Eritreans affected by war and drought and the remaining US$51.54 million for non-food items. In addition the UN Appeal considers that the urban poor need only non food assistance while ERREC’s appeal included more urban poor and considers that they need food as well as non food assistance.įood aid is the major component of both budget requests and it accounts for 79% and 72% of the ERREC and UN appeals, respectively. The joint (government, UN and NGO) Annual Needs Assessment conducted in November covered only 58% of the sub-zobas and extrapolated its results to the entire country while ERREC had conducted its needs assessment in all sub-zobas in October.

The conspicuous difference in budgets is due to the difference in the number of sub-zobas covered during the Annual Needs Assessment. Sources: Government of Eritrea Appeal for Emergency Relief Assistance and UNĮRREC estimates that the provision of food and non-food assistance to the 2.04 million target beneficiaries will cost about US$223.39 million while the United Nations Consolidated Inter-agency team estimates that meeting the needs of 1.76 million target beneficiaries will cost US$154.54 million. * The urban poor are excluded from receiving food rations, only non- food aid. The UN appeal is a subset of the government appeal as the government appeal takes into account an additional 279,000 target beneficiaries (Table 1). On February 22, ERREC and the United Nations Country Team launched separate appeals to the international donor community to support humanitarian activities in 2001. National Trends Affecting All or Most of the Country In addition to IDPs in the camps, more refugees may arrive in the country from Sudan under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation program.ģ. But if the peace process does not proceed as expected, many of the displaced people will remain in camps and host communities and will depend on relief aid for some time to come. If the peace process is implemented without incident to enable IDPs to return on time to start their normal productive lives again, the extent of food insecurity will be reduced. The food security outlook for next year will depend upon many factors among which the major ones are the rain conditions in the coming season, the situation in the occupied territories, and the outcome of the peace process. The WFP food stock balance is presented in Table 1.ĮRREC is expecting 20,052 MT of wheat 1,867 MT of lentils and 1,218 MT of oil by the end of March. Unless the outstanding pledges from last year arrive soon, food insecurity could worsen for target groups. WFP food stocks stored in the ERREC warehouse are getting depleted quickly.

The plight of these people has been brought to the attention of the Eritrean Refugee and Relief Commission (ERREC) for follow-up.Ģ. Once the Temporary Security Zones are established in the areas currently occupied by Ethiopia, the inhabitants of these areas will need support from the government or humanitarian organizations.Īn Eritrean Information and Coordination Center (ICC) field team that has returned from Zoba Southern Red Sea has reported that there are close to 7,000 Afar IDPs that have not been accounted for by either of the government or joint government-UN Needs Assessments. These people have not been getting support. The ANA has estimated close to 50,000 persons living in the occupied territories. Therefore, there is a need to expedite the delivery of the 2000 carryover pledges.

It is almost certain that responses for this year’s appeal cannot be expected to arrive before the middle of the year. The major concern for the Eritrean government is the fear that many of the vulnerable groups living in IDP camps and among host communities may face food shortages in the coming months unless the remaining pledges from last year arrive soon. Review of Continuing and Emerging Food Crises

Fews into red review