§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action the Government have taken to help deal with the drought in Ethiopia; and whether they will respond to the recent appeal for aid from the Eritrean Relief Association.
§ Mr. RaisonWe have provided 19,000 tonnes of food through the world food programme, costing about £2.8 million, and our share of food aid promised in 1983 by the European Community, which will come to over £1.5 million. We have provided over £625,000 to British and international disaster relief agencies, who are working for the relief of the victims of the Ethiopian drought. This is more than to any other drought-affected country in Africa. We shall continue to watch the situation carefully and, as I said in the Consolidated Fund debate on 19 December, I shall be meeting the disasters emergency committee, comprising the heads of the five major British Charities—CAFOD—Catholic Fund for Overseas Development —Oxfam, Save the Children Fund, British Red Cross and Christian Aid — towards the end of January, to discuss disasters worldwide.
For reasons of accountability our disaster relief aid is given on a Government to Government basis, or through a recognised British or international agency, or through Her Majesty's Government's representatives overseas. As the Eritrean Relief Association does not come into any of these categories we will not be responding to its appeal.