Ethiopia: Catholic agencies build aid corridor

Image UNHCR

Source: Fides

A joint operational mission of Caritas Italiana and Sant'Egidio Community is has started in Addis Ababa to open the first humanitarian aid corridor from Africa in accordance with the protocol signed in Rome on January 12, 2017. The Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian State, promoted by the Italian Episcopal Conference - which operates through Caritas Italiana and the Migrantes Foundation - and the Community of Sant'Egidio, is funded with 8x1000 CEI funds and provides for the transfer, from Ethiopian camps, of 500 Eritrean, Somali and South Sudanese refugees in two years.

During the meeting with the Italian delegation, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Mrs Hirut Zemene, underlined the generosity of this humanitarian operation for the most vulnerable people, and expressed appreciation of the commitment of Italy and its civil society towards migrants in this particularly complex period.

The Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa and President of the Episcopal Conference of Ethiopia and Eritrea Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel and by Caritas Ethiopia expressed their gratitude.

UN agencies, engaged in the aid towards refugees, such as ARRA, the State agency which deals with more than 850,000 refugees in Ethiopia have offered full cooperation,

The Mission will start with a full reconnaissance in the Tigrai camps, on the border with Eritrea, facilitated by the NGO Gandhi Charity.