Luxembourg's Directorate of Defence announced on Monday that the Grand Duchy had sent 50 vaccine refrigerators to Burkina Faso using the A400M military aircraft.
Following a request within the framework of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs is providing partner country Burkina Faso with 50 refrigerators to store vaccines. The refrigerators are produced by the Luxembourg manufacturer B-Medical and fitted with solar panels.
The equipment was transported to Ouagadougou with the A400M military aircraft, piloted by a Luxembourg military pilot, on Monday, in the presence of François Bausch, Luxembourg's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, and Franz Fayot, Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs.
Minister Fayot underlined the importance of such a gesture of solidarity towards the partners of Luxembourg's development cooperation programme: “Less than 1% of the Burkinabé population are vaccinated at this stage, it is therefore crucial to offer this technical support to accelerate vaccination in Burkina Faso and strengthen global vaccination coverage, without which the pandemic cannot be brought under control".
Minister Bausch added that this operation perfectly illustrates the symbiosis that can exist between defence and humanitarian action: “This is the third joint action between the Directorate of Defence and the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, and this time a Luxembourg plane with a Luxembourg crew member is transporting refrigerators designed and manufactured in Luxembourg and financed by Luxembourg to Burkina Faso”.
The Deputy Prime Minister explained that the “Pooling and Sharing” mechanism in which Luxembourg's defence participates through the European Air Transport Command (EATC) provides great efficiency but also more flexibility for Luxembourg, particularly in terms of access to different types of aircraft.
