In response to the famine threat currently affecting Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen, the Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Romain Schneider, has released additional emergency aid of up to €500,000 to support agencies working in afflicted areas.
This assistance will mainly be implemented in collaboration with Luxembourg humanitarian partners and long-standing Luxembourg NGOs in the regions concerned. A first consultation meeting with the Luxembourg NGOs concerned to obtain an overview of possible activities planned by these actors was held at the ministry yesterday.
For several years, Luxembourg has closely monitored the humanitarian situation in the four countries concerned and - given its involvement in the Sahel region, particularly its partnership with Niger - is also paying special attention to the Lake Chad region.
This new bolster will be added to the efforts already made by Luxembourg to respond to the threat of famine in 2017 including contributions totalling more than €9 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for their operations in Somalia and South Sudan, Unicef, the United Nations Joint Humanitarian Funds for South Sudan and Nigeria, the UNHCR for operations in South Sudan and Sudan, the Central Emergency Response Fund, and planned aid of €1 million for Yemen.
In addition, since January this year, a satellite telecommunication system of the emergency.lu project is operational in Nigeria at the Maiduguri camp to support the coordination efforts of humanitarian actors. Similarly, a terminal "emergency.lu" is still in service in South Sudan for the benefit of Unicef.
