Today, the Commission is allocating an additional €5.5 million in humanitarian aid to support the Armenians displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Many of the people who fled to Armenia during the last year's mass exodus took little to no belongings with them, leaving them dependent on emergency aid.
€1.5 million of this funding is assigned for disaster preparedness to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities to potential crises. The remaining €4 million of humanitarian funding is mainly focussing on providing the displaced Karabakh Armenians with regular cash transfers and vouchers to help them cover their basic needs.
Through its humanitarian partners, the EU aims to support people in need with access to food, shelter healthcare, mental health services, and protection.
Underlining EU's humanitarian support to Karabakh Armenians, Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, said: “This is the first winter for thousands of Karabakh Armenians who fled to Armenia last Autumn. In these challenging times, it is our humanitarian duty to provide protection and assistance to the people most in need. With this new €5.5 million funding, we will aim to further strengthen the existing EU humanitarian response to the displaced people in Armenia, by providing them with access to basic services.”
This funding comes in addition to the €12.2 million already announced by the European Commission in response to the the mass exodus of Karabakh Armenians in September 2023.
More information on EU humanitarian operations in Armenia and Azerbaijan can be found online. The EU-Armenia Partnership Council is taking place today in Brussels, on which you can find further details here.
Details
- Publication date
- 13 February 2024
- Author
- Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO)