§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister of Overseas Development what estimates are available to her from the appropriate United Nations bodies of the number of refugees within or outside Eritrea arising from the war in that territory.
§ Mrs. HartThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are about 110,000 refugees from Eritrea Province outside Ethiopia and that almost all of these are in the Sudan. There are no UNHCR estimates for numbers of refugees within Eritrea province.
678Wtaken of the report by the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation that food shortages in the Sahelian Zone of Africa are more serious than previously estimated; what food aid is being given by the United Kingdom to Upper Volta, Mali, Chad, Mauretania, Senegal, Cape Verde and the Gambia; and what special emergency aid is envisaged.
§ Mrs. HartThe United Kingdom maintains close contact with the FAO through our representation in Rome, and our food aid allocations take account of reports by the Director General. The United Kingdom has given or pledged the following gifts of cereals as bilateral food aid to the Sahel in response to recent FAC reports of shortages: