The decision to provide humanitarian aid came as a result of a request within the framework of the European Civil Protection Mechanism.  The directorate for cooperation and humanitarian action has provided Burkina Faso with 50 vaccine refrigerators produced by Luxembourg manufacturer B-Medical and equipped with solar panels.

“Less than 1% of the Burkinabe population is vaccinated at this stage, so it is crucial to offer this technical support to accelerate vaccination in Burkina Faso and to reinforce the global vaccination coverage, without which the pandemic cannot be controlled,” said minister of cooperation and humanitarian action, Franz Fayot.

Fayot and defence minister François Bausch took part in the humanitarian aid mission which saw the material transported to Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou by an A400M military aircraft, piloted by a Luxembourg military pilot.

Bausch highlighted the benefits of cooperation between directorate of defence and the directorate of cooperation and Humanitarian Aid. Thanks to the “pooling and sharing” mechanism in which the directorate of defence participates through the European Air Transport Command, Luxembourg’s has more flexibility in terms of access to different types of aircraft.