The European Union announced Tuesday the allocation of 17.25 million euros (23.4 million dollars) in humanitarian aid for Myanmar's "vulnerable people" this year. Most of the aid, to be provided through the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO), is to go to ethnic minority groups living in Myanmar's frontier areas and refugees located in camps in Thailand, the EU office in Bangkok said.
"Vulnerable communities, especially those living in the remote border areas, continue to be in dire need of assistance," EU Ambassador in Bangkok David Lipman said.
"The objective of ECHO's activities in Burma/Myanmar is solely humanitarian, and it will address the most pressing needs of people at risk," he said.
An estimated 1.2 million people are expected to benefit directly from the support, which is due to see 9.25 million euros allocated to health and food programmes in remote rural frontier areas in the Rakhine, Shan, Mon, Kayah and Kayin states and Thanintaryi divisions of Myanmar, which was once known as Burma.
The remaining 8 million euros is to go to 150,000 Karen refugees living in camps in Thailand.
The EU has been funding relief programmes in Myanmar, a pariah state among Western democracies, since 1994.
ECHO opened an office in Yangon in October 2005 to help the delivery of European humanitarian aid to the military-run country.
Myanmar has faced economic sanctions on Western aid, trade and investments since its army's brutal crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in 1988 that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.
During 2008 to 2009, the EU provided 39 million euros in emergency support to assist the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into the central Irrawaddy Delta area in May 2008, leaving 140,00 people dead or missing.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/312045,eu-gives-myanmar-17 million-euros-in-humanitarian-aid.html
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