The United Nations issued a beefed-up plea Tuesday for 96 million dollars in aid for Kyrgyzstan in the wake of violence last month. A first aid request in June to members for 73 million dollars focussed on initial life-saving efforts, but recent analysis shows more funds are needed to provide for educational, food, agricultural, health and security needs, the UN said in a revised appeal for aid, according to dpa. The money would help some 400,000 people, many of them displaced after inter-ethnic clashes in the southern part of the country left an estimated 2,000 people dead. The UN estimates some 75,000 people have not yet returned to their homes following the violence in June. Some 30 per cent of the initial amount has already been funded. Neal Walker, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in the central Asian nation, said assistance is needed in part to provide shelter to displaced people before the onset of winter. "People in the south need to feel safe again in order to move on to recovery, reconstruction and reconciliation," he said.
