Addis Ababa, Dec.9(ENA)--The European Commission is currently preparing a 70 million euro emergency food aid for Ethiopia for the year 2003 assistance program to be adopted before the end of the year.

According the commission’s press release sent to ENA on Monday, the commitment was made in response to the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) appeal for relief aid for the next year.

The new contribution is equivalent to 260,000 metric tones (Mt) of cereals and will meet food aid requirements during the first half of the year 2003, it said.

It said the new commitment comes in addition to the food aid assistance already provided for the needs of the last quarter of 2002, which was 23 million euros and non-food humanitarian aid worth 4 million euros allocated by the European Officer humanitarian Aid (ECHO) in November 2002.

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