Minister Ahern announces €2 million in humanitarian funding for Chad

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dermot Ahern T.D., today announced €2 million in extra funding for the Humanitarian Crisis in Chad. This follows on from the Minister’s visit to Chad last month. The funding is for humanitarian programmes operated by Concern, Child Fund and the World Food Programme for refugees from Darfur and those internally displaced by ongoing conflict. Making the announcement, the Minister said:

“I am delighted to confirm that my colleague Minister of State Michael Kitt has made available an additional €2 million funding for humanitarian programmes across Chad. I visited the country recently and witnessed at first hand the desolation and deprivation visited on our fellow human beings, not just by Mother Nature’s vagaries, but also by the terrible employment of human enterprise in war and conflict. The deployment of European Union peacekeepers will help to prevent further terror being visited upon innocent men, women and children.

In the meantime, this contribution on behalf of the Irish people to the work of Concern, Child Fund and the World Food Programme in Chad, will bring hope and relief to some of those suffering at this time”.

Note for editors:

This funding will bring Ireland’s commitment to Humanitarian operations in Chad to €6.75 million in 2007, a significant rise on €1.4 million funding in 2006.

In both years funding was provided to United Nations agencies working in Chad such as UNHCR, OCHA, UNDP and UNICEF. In 2007, Irish Aid provided c. € 4.75 million in funding for humanitarian relief projects in Chad undertaken by the UN agencies above, the French NGO Medicines Sans Frontieres, Child Fund and Concern Worldwide.

Also in 2007, the Department of Agriculture announced in September a donation of €2 million to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Chad, specifically for the Humanitarian Air Service, which provides transport to bring food to remote regions, bringing Irish support to Chad in 2007 to €6.75 million.

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Press

27/12/07