Summary: EU Commission provides €2m of humanitarian aid to ethnic tensions victims in Kenya (15 December 2005: Brussels)
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The European Commission has decided to grant the victims of ethnic tensions in Northern Kenya humanitarian aid worth €2 million. It will finance humanitarian operations to improve the situation of up to 450,000 people. Measures will cover their needs concerning nutrition, water and sanitation, as well as the protection of those caught up in the ethnic clashes. This will include for example nutritional support, the rehabilitation of existing boreholes, water tanks, shallow wells and
cattle pens and the establishment of protection centres for giving counselling.
Kenya is one of the world's least-developed countries. The level of poverty and unemployment leaves its northern and north-eastern areas, bordering Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda, vulnerable to crime and insecurity. People in the region face many challenges: climate changes that negatively affect the arid and semi arid lands and high population growth which is leading to intensified competition among rural communities for essential resources such as water and pasture. The effect is an
ever-growing and increasing cycle of ethnic tension and violence. Clashes earlier this year caused numerous deaths and left more than 6,500 Kenyans internally displaced. In addition, there are currently up to 27,000 Somalis in Northern Kenya who have fled their country recently to seek refugee status or asylum in Kenya.
There are no indications that the number of refugees and internally displaced people will diminish in the near future, quite the opposite. The humanitarian aid operations financed by this Commission decision will be implemented over the next year. The funding will be channelled through the Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department, ECHO, which comes under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel.
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