Mozambique is located on the southeast coast of Africa and is bordered by: Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania Zambia and Zimbabwe. On its east Mozambique has around 2,500 km of Indian Ocean coastline, one of the longest coasts in Africa.

It is divided by the Zambezi river, with coastal lowlands to the south, and hills, plateaus and highlands to the north.

The fight to end extreme poverty and hunger in the world remains one of the most pressing global challenges. But it is important to bear in mind that, working together in partnership, developed and developing countries have achieved some remarkable development results over the last 10 years. Between 2005 and 2010, the total number of poor people around the world fell by nearly half a billion. Millions of child deaths have been avoided thanks to greater access to vaccines and mosquito nets. 40 million more children are going to school today than at the turn of the millennium.

Minister of State for Trade and Development Joe Costello, TD, today announced that Ireland is preparing to airlift emergency shelter supplies to assist the international relief effort in the Philippines.

"The full scale of the devastation wrought by the typhoon which hit the Philippines on December 15 and 16 is now clear. It is estimated that 1,000 people have died while almost 350,000 people have been left homeless as a result of landslides and severe flooding on the island of Mindanao", Minister Costello said.

The Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O’Sullivan TD, has announced Government support for the relief operation in the Philippines following the weekend’s typhoon and flooding.

€100,000 has been made available to humanitarian agency Plan Ireland for its relief effort in the Mindanao region. The Government has also offered emergency supplies from its stockpile in Subang, Malaysia.

FOREWORD

Ireland’s development cooperation programme, which is managed by Irish Aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is a practical expression of the core principles of our foreign policy, and of our values as a people. Ireland’s place in the world is defined by our commitment to justice, equality, human dignity and respect for human rights, and by our solidarity with those whose lives and futures are blighted by extreme poverty and hunger.

In response to the ongoing fighting in and around Tripoli, the Government has announced that it will contribute €100,000 to help deliver much needed medical supplies to some of the city’s main hospitals.

Announcing the funding, the Tánaiste said that Ireland would provide the funds to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to support its efforts to provide medical and surgical supplies to hospitals treating those wounded by the hostilities.

A Government airlift of emergency humanitarian supplies will arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, in the early hours of tomorrow morning, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore TD, has announced.

The 38 metric tonnes of emergency water and shelter materials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s humanitarian depot in Dubai will be distributed by Concern to thousands of refugees in the famine-struck country.

The Government today announced a further €400,000 for emergency operations in the drought-stricken region of Horn of Africa.

Minister of State for Trade and Development, Jan O’Sullivan TD, approved the funding for CONCERN as part of an ongoing response operation by Irish Aid. The funds will be used to provide food rations for 10,000 of the worst-affected people in Somalia, as well as treating 1,800 malnourished children.

The Government is to assist the emergency evacuation of civilians from the city of Misurata in Libya.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore TD, said Ireland, through Irish Aid, would fund the International Organisation for Migration to evacuate 1000 civilians on a specially-chartered ship. The IoM has carried out a number of such emergency missions to Misurata, which has been under fire by President Gadaffi’s forces for nearly eight weeks. The United Nations last week estimated at least 20 children had been killed during the ongoing hostilities.