Ninety low-cost housing units built by the German technical Cooperation (GTZ) with funding from the European Union (E.U.) have been handed over to displaced families in Ethiopia, the local press report carried by DPA said Thursday. The recipients, in the town of Woldiya, some 520 kilometres north of Addis Ababa, are among thousands who were displaced from their homes from various parts of Eritrea during the 1998-2000 border conflict between the two countries, the Amharic language government daily Addis Zemen reported. The initial newly built 90 low-cost houses are part of 297 housing project the E.U. is financing in the Amhara region of central Ethiopia under the country's rehabilitation scheme for persons displaced from Eritrea during the border conflict. The remaining 207 low-cost houses of the project being carried out by the GTZ since early 2004 in six other towns in the region are to be completed in 2006, Addis Zemen said, citing project officials. The project covers a total of 1,000 such low-cost housing units for the displaced persons from Eritrea in others parts of the country costing some 67 million birr (7.7 million dollars) and financed by the E.U., the report added. --SP 22 25 Local Time 19 25 GMT
