EU to give Haiti $25.1m in humanitarian aid

(PORT AU PRINCE) - The European Union will give Haiti $25.1 million (18.5 million euros) in aid next year to help ease ongoing humanitarian concerns, an official said Wednesday.

Raphael Brigandi, a spokesman for the EU office in Haiti, said Europe had drawn up an aid plan after assessing the impoverished Caribbean nation's needs.

The aid would help food insecurity and other problems while assisting the needs of individuals who remain displaced following the devastating January 2010 earthquake, Brigandi said.

The budget for 2014, which awaits approval, represents an increase for EU aid given in 2013 (15 million euros) but is down on the number for 2010.

Humanitarian aid will be channeled through European groups working on the ground in Haiti as well as international organizations such as the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Nearly four years after the earthquake that left 1.5 million people homeless, some 170,000 people continue to live in about 300 makeshift camps around the country.

"We plan to provide assistance to people who are in the camps and provide assistance for their resettlement," the EU office in Port-au-Prince said.

The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office has also prioritized the cholera epidemic that has claimed the lives of around 500 people and affected some 50,000 Haitians this year.