UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR $101 MILLION FOR EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN AID FOR ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA
Press Release
IHA/597
UNITED NATIONS APPEALS FOR $101 MILLION FOR EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN AID FOR ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA
19960531 NEW YORK/GENEVA, 31 May (Department of Humanitarian Affairs) -- The United Nations launched today a consolidated inter-agency appeal for $101 million for humanitarian assistance programmes in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The funds are for projects which address the most urgent humanitarian needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable groups.The appeal covers the period June 1996 through May 1997, and comprises projects from nine United Nations agencies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and non-governmental organizations. Of the amount sought, $24.4 million is for Armenia, $30.5 million for Azerbaijan, $36.7 million for Georgia and $9.4 million for regional projects.
Donor support for humanitarian relief assistance in the Caucasus has been mixed in the past; just 60 per cent of the total needs of $118 million requested in the April-December 1995 appeal for the Caucasus were met. While support for food aid and refugee-related assistance was in most cases strong, a relatively poor response was received for other projects, notably those in the health and rehabilitation sectors.
The lack of substantive progress on political talks on the Nagorny Karabakh and Abkhaz conflicts have not, so far, produced any significant reduction in the number of displaced persons dependent on humanitarian assistance. At the same time, the economic transitions under way in the Caucasus countries have led to greater needs among the highly vulnerable groups of society, like widowers and pensioners.
The 1996/1997 United Nations humanitarian programme in the Caucasus seeks to assist a total of about 800,000 displaced and vulnerable persons, targeting 250,000 displaced and vulnerable persons in Armenia, 225,000 in Azerbaijan and 300,000 in Georgia.
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