Credit: emergency.lu
Luxembourg has deployed emergency telecommunications aid (emergency.lu) to Mozambique following the destruction caused by Cyclone Idai.
To help victims of floods caused by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique and following an official request from the World Food Programme (WFP), the Luxembourg Minister of Cooperation and Humanitarian Action, Paulette Lenert, and Minister of the Interior, Taina Bofferding, dispatched two telecommunication experts from the humanitarian intervention group and two rapid-deployment satellite communication systems to Beira in the centre of the country.
The team left on the evening of 16 March 2019 to re-establish telecommunication services in the Beira region, where more than 500,000 people are cut off from the rest of the world. The work will be done in coordination with the local authorities and the MAP regional coordinator. The intervention group responsible for humanitarian missions of the Grand-Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps intervenes outside the territory of Luxembourg in the event of serious calamitous events on the orders of the government, either at the request of the country or countries concerned or as part of international assistance.
emergency.lu is a mobile satellite telecommunications platform whose primary objective is to restore the means of communication after a disaster, support the coordination efforts of the humanitarian organisations on the ground and thus contribute to saving human lives in humanitarian emergencies. It is a public-private partnership between the Luxembourg government and three Luxembourg companies (SES Telecom Services, Hitec Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance S.A.). Luxembourg provides emergency.lu services as a free global public good to the humanitarian community. The same services are offered to the people and governments of the affected countries.
