The first military cargo plane from Chad is set to land in Israel late Wednesday night to pick up humanitarian aid from a private nongovernmental organization called Israeli Flying Aid (IFA).
According to the group’s founder Gal Lusky, the flight will land at Israeli air-force base after flying over Sudan.
Israel does not have formal relations with Sudan but it is on the list of Muslim majority nations likely to establish diplomatic ties with Israel in the near future as part of the US backed efforts for such normalized ties. Chad and Israeli re-established ties in 2019 after they had been terminated in 1972.
According to Lusky, the flight was jointly coordinated by both countries through the Prime Minister’s Office and National Security Council.
IFA is donating tents to help 12,000 people made homeless by floods in that country.
About 760,000 people have been hit by severe flooding in recent weeks in parts of West and Central Africa, out of which 188,000 were impacted in Chad.
Floods are common during the rainy season, but in recent years climate change, land degradation and poor urban planning have led to more frequent disasters as rapidly-growing cities struggle with heavier-than-normal rainfall.
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Congo Republic and Senegal are among those worst-hit this year.
Lusky said that IFA is also donating protective gear against COVID-19 to help medical personnel and equipment to assist in spraying pesticides that kills malaria carrying mosquitoes.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post