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ERITREA: GOVERNMENT BANS 3 FOREIGN AID GROUPS March 23, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) In what has been described as failure to meet the requirements laid down for an operational permit, three foreign non-governmental aid groups have been ordered by Eritrea to suspend their activities despite hunger that's threatening two-thirds of the population, a move which adds to a long list of foreign expulsions from Eritrea in recent times, Reuters reported Thursday
Eritrea’s ministry of labour and human welfare told Irish aid group Concern, US Mercy Corps and British Accord that they had not "met the requirements laid down for an operational permit".
"The Ministry kindly officially informs you that the registration certificate is recalled and requests the termination of your activities as of 28/02/2006," said a letter to one of the charities March 20. According to the letter, the charity "had not met requirements" for a permit to operate, however, it did not specify further reasons.
Eritrea last month alone ordered six (6) Italian aid groups to stop their operations in the country. In September last year, it stopped most free distribution of food aid, and called for "food for work" programmes to be put in place.
Mean while, Diplomats said that owing to the halt, there were some 100 000 tons of food aid stocked in warehouses, some of which had started rotting.
Worse still,The United Nations says two-thirds of Eritrea's 3.5 million population needed food aid in 2005 and while there were no figures yet for 2006, most of Eritrea's neighbours were suffering from a scorching drought that threatened millions with starvation.
Despite being one of the poorest nations in the world, Eritrea has in the past year ejected the U.S. government's international aid agency USAID, at least eight other international charities, scores of Western U.N. peacekeepers, and an Italian diplomat.