NCA and partners are now well underway with the delivery of aid items to North and South Ossetia and Georgia. "Tens of thousands are affected," says NCAs Atle Sommerfeldt.

The first airlift of aid consists of drinking water, food and woolen blankets to meet a population of around 14,000. Further needs for both immediate and longer-term assistance will be assessed as rapidly as possible once Norwegian Church Aid's experts in post-traumatic assistance, hygiene, water and sanitation reach the region on Tuesday.

"The region was already home to a quarter of a million internally displaced people before violence broke out this month. The need for immediate humanitarian assistance is great, and this need is not going to vanish any time soon – the situation is going to demand a long-term response," says Atle Sommerfeldt, General Secretary of Norwegian Church Aid.

Norwegian Church Aid plans to send a large cargo of water purification equipment and personnel to the areas worst-affected by recent violence as soon as these have been identified. The organisation has this week allocated NOK 200,000 (around USD 37,000) from its own emergency reserves to allow work to begin immediately while an application for NOK 2.5 million (around USD 465,000) is processed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Norwegian Church Aid is not working alone in the region, but rather coordinating the joint efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church, Hungarian Interchurch Aid and German Brot für die Welt/Diakonia. All are members of the international aid network ACT International (Action by Churches Together).

For more information, contact:

• Atle Sommerfeldt, General Secretary, Norwegian Church Aid, tel: (+47) 917 55 112
• Arne Grieg Riisnæs, Press officer, tel: (+47) 922 72 211