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Caritas to boost emergency supplies to Yugoslavia

The Swiss branch of the Catholic Church charity, Caritas, has set up a special programme of emergency supplies destined for Montenegro and Serbia worth SFr6.3 million ($3.6 million).

The programme will intensify efforts already begun last autumn in the region.

Areas in Serbia near Belgrade, Nis, Subotica and Zrenjanin are to receive 80,000 aid parcels containing basic food and hygiene products. Nine thousand families would benefit from receiving firewood, while a further 3,000 would be given wood stoves.

In neighbouring Montenegro, 20,000 families are to receive ration cards to buy food alongside firewood and ovens.

In launching the new programme Caritas was keen to point out that the former Yugoslavia has Europe’s highest number of refugees. Two hundred thousand people from Kosovo and half-a-million from Bosnia and Croatia are classed as refugees.

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