ErCS is a member of the Caritas network. Vatican-based Caritas Internationalis has responded by appealing for $1.72 million to help meet the food needs of some of Eritrea’s most vulnerable, including children under age 5, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and the ill and elderly.
The country is reeling from a border conflict with Ethiopia, which forced the displacement of tens of thousands of Eritreans and destabilized the economy, and is suffering from ongoing drought.
ErCS reports that of the 2.33 million touched by drought, around 600,000 have little or no access to food supply systems. Furthermore, 30% of drought-affected children receive no food at all.
ErCS is aiming to run supplementary feeding programs. The programs are not without obstacles. Many of the vulnerable are living in the Temporary Security Zone, a demilitarized buffer zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea, while others are in the lowlands, where fears of land mines and insecurity run high.
