Northern Caucasus: EU Commission allocates €17.5m for victims of conflict in Chechnya

The European Commission has approved a €17.5 million humanitarian aid package to support victims of the conflict in Chechnya. The recipients will include internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable groups in Chechnya, as well as IDPs in Ingushetia and Dagestan, and Chechen refugees in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Assistance will be provided in the following sectors: protection, shelter, income-generation activities, health, water and sanitation, psycho-social assistance and mine-risk education. Funds are being allocated via the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel.

Although the conflict in Chechnya has receded, humanitarian needs remain acute. Some 180,000 people, almost one quarter of the population, continue to be internally displaced. Many of them are returnees who have come back from Ingushetia over the past few years but could not go home because their houses were destroyed during the conflict. Living conditions, particularly in Grozny, remain extremely difficult. Outside Chechnya, around 20,000 people are still displaced in Ingushetia and some 7,000 in Dagestan. In addition, some 2,800 refugees currently reside in Azerbaijan, as well as 1,800 in Georgia, most of them residing in dire conditions.

Activities funded under this decision will concentrate on sectors where humanitarian needs are not met and remain acute. Support for protection activities in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan will continue. Additional projects will include income-generation and food security activities, the basic rehabilitation of private houses in Chechnya, psychological assistance, especially for children affected by war-related trauma, as well as mine risk education. The funding will also cover primary and mother-and-child health services and the improvement of water and sanitation facilities in Chechnya. A component of this decision will target specifically the most vulnerable Chechen refugees living in Azerbaijan and Georgia. Relative improvements in the socio-economic situation in Chechnya and a significant reconstruction effort have led to a downsizing of ECHO's humanitarian programme in the region for the first time since the beginning of the crisis.

Insecurity in Chechnya has decreased but remains high nonetheless, with some military and guerrilla-type operations still going on, especially in the South. The civilian population continues to suffer harshly in a conflict characterised by widespread human rights violations.

Projects will be implemented by international agencies operating in the region such as: ICRC, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, Action Contre la Faim, Médecins du Monde, International Rescue Committee and Danish Refugee Council. The delivery of aid will depend on access and security conditions, which remain extremely difficult in the Northern Caucasus.

Since the beginning of the current conflict in autumn 1999 and including this new decision, the European Commission has provided around €220 million in humanitarian aid for this crisis, making the EU the largest donor in the region.

More info on:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/echo/field/russia/index_en.htm

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