OCHA Situation Report Update 31
Eritrea
Report for October 2005
23 November 2005


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

HIGHLIGHTS

Eritrea will launch a first round nationwide polio vaccination campaign 
from 11-14 November to immunize children under five as part of an 
Africa-wide operation aimed at halting the spread of the virus. The 
campaign comes two months after one polio case was detected near the 
border with Sudan and several other cases reported in Yemen, Sudan and 
Ethiopia. Health workers will go from house to house across the country 
to vaccinate children under five between 11-14 November and again on 16 
December.  The campaign will be lead by the Ministry of Health with 
support from WHO and UNICEF.

The donor response to the 2005-Consolidated Appeal for Eritrea stands at 
62.9% of the required US $156.4 million.

OCHA facilitated the mission to Eritrea of Ms. Lisette Wahlroth of 
Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) from 24-31 October 2005. 
The purpose of the mission was to evaluate the impact of SIDA funded 
projects and discuss with partners on future assistance. During her 
mission Ms. Wahlroth met and discussed with members of UNCT, LWF, ICRC, 
Administration of Anseba zone and some donors resident in Eritrea.

FAO continues seed multiplication and distribution to poor farmers

The seed multiplication activities continue in Gash Barka under the two 
project funded by Swedish Government ? SIDA, and the Humanitarian Aid 
Office of European Commission (ECHO). The harvest will start in 
November. It's expected a production of approximately 200 tons of 
sorghum seed and 100 tons of pearl millet to be distributed to farmers 
for the next planting season 2006.

The FAO Emergency Coordination Unit has also distributed 40 tons of 
maize in Foro and Ghinda, Northern Red Sea to 5000 farmers.

WFP Continue to support IDPs and Special programmes with Food Aid

With the prospects for the coming harvest being better than in the past 
five years, the Government is concerned about the negative impact that 
continued distribution of significant levels of food aid could have on 
the market prices. In addition, with a view to making a transition out 
of the continued dependency on free food aid distribution, the 
Government is advocating a shift from free food distribution to a 
combination of two modalities; (1) free food aid assistance for those 
not able to work such as disabled persons and elderly and (2) food for 
work.

The general food distributions have been experiencing delays pending the 
results of the ongoing assessments aimed at identifying the 
beneficiaries who will fit into these categories. Nevertheless, food 
assistance to others types of programmes including support to people 
affected by HIV/AIDS, school feeding, therapeutic and supplementary 
feeding as well as assistance to internally displaced persons continues.

Contributions for WFP's programme remain at the same level for 2005 as 
reported in the previous month with USD 42.8 million, representing 20.3% 
of the projects operational costs and 114,304 MT of mixed commodities or 
24.8% of the two-year project food needs. In addition, 73, 911 MT 
representing 68,438 MT of in-country stocks and 5,473 MT of expected 
arrivals are in the process of being transferred from the previous 
programmes, which came to an end last August.

UNICEF Supports Water Supply and Supplementary Feeding Projects

During the reporting period UNICEF distributed 136 MT supplementary 
foodstuffs to 66 health facilities to assist the nutritional requirement 
of approximately 23,000 children, pregnant and lactating women. In 
addition UNICEF continued to support the Ministry of Health with 
therapeutic food (F-100 and F-75), drugs and operational support for 42 
therapeutic feeding centers.

Shetel water supply project supported by UNICEF in Zoba Anseba was 
completed in October.  The project covers nine cluster villages namely 
Sebre Biju, Krot Nejar, Kush, Ad-Hamad, Ad-Arey, Fekia Brot, Shebek, 
Kermed and Ad-Omer and provides approximately 16,000 people with clean 
water supply.

CARE Implements Food Security and Environmental Conservation Projects

To address the humanitarian needs in Eritrea, CARE International is 
implementing a number of projects related to food security and 
environmental conservation.  These projects include: 1) Multi-sectoral 
intervention in agro-pastoral communities, 2) Integrated livelihood 
security, 3) Environmental conservation and food security strengthening.

The first two projects address livestock problems related to feed, water 
for drinking and animal health by giving training to farmers in five 
administrative villages in Mai Mine sub-zone of Debub.  The activities 
of the two projects include improving the forage in 500ha of rangeland 
by reseeding and protecting pastures, construction of water ponds and 
enhancing income generating activities. This quarter, 30 saving and 
credit associations were established to diversify livelihood activities. 
In addition, 67 farmers in the Integrated Livelihood security project 
multiplied three improved sorghum varieties in 50 ha.  These varieties 
are early maturing, drought resistant and high yielding when compared to 
the local varieties.  It is expected that 45mt will be harvested which 
will be distributed to 3,750 farmers to produce approximately 750mt of 
improved seed varieties in the 2006 cultivation season.

Through the environmental conservation and food security project, CARE 
is assisting women headed families by providing improved stove (mogogo) 
to reduce fire wood consumption at household level.  This quarter, 12 
women established bee keeping projects and 940 households in planting 
4,700 trees around their houses.

UNMEE MACC Highlights

No demining or UXO (unexploded ordnance) disposal operations have been 
conducted in the Mission area since 5 October 2005 due to the Eritrean 
Government's decision to prohibit all UNMEE helicopter flights. This 
restriction prevents the possibility of a helicopter medical evacuation 
in case of an emergency involving a demining accident of a deminer in 
the field. All UNMEE operational demining activities remain suspended 
until further notice. The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the UN Office 
for Project Services (UNOPS) and the MACC are in the process of 
evaluating various possibilities for putting in place an upgraded 
medical support system in the field to enable demining operations to 
recommence at the earliest opportunity.

The Kenyan Demining Company completed a troop rotation of its 
contingents during the month of October. A refresher-training course on 
basic demining skills was completed by the new contingent by the end of 
the month. Selected members of the recently arrived company continue to 
undergo a training course in the use of mine detection dogs and 
mechanical demining equipment with instructors from the MACC contractor, 
MECHEM. The training is taking place in a designated area at Shilalo in 
Se ctor West.

Whilst clearance operations remain suspended, Mine Risk Education (MRE) 
activities continued. The two MACC MRE teams were deployed to Sector 
West and Sector Center. The two teams provided MRE to 2,284 people.

Mine/UXO Accidents

A mine accident occurred on the Asmara ? Barentu - Bushuka road in 
Sector West on 1 October 2005. The accident involved a civilian bus, 
which hit a newly laid anti-tank mine. One passenger was killed and 
nineteen others were injured. The MACC carried out an investigation into 
the accident. The Preliminary Investigation Report (PIR) on the accident 
was released and distributed on October 3, 2005. The MACC also 
immediately deployed MECHEM's route clearance team to conduct checks on 
all roads in the area. The MACC continues to closely monitor the mine 
and UXO threat in the Mission area.

For Further Information Related to the Humanitarian Update, Please 
contact:
   OCHA - Eritrea Public Information Section
   Phone: 291-1-151666/151888
   Fax: 291-1-151999
   E-Mail: gebrehiwots@un.org

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
    Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                   guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -