French President brings five tons of aid to Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Monday, the French President accompanied with the Defense Minister brought five tons of humanitarian aid to the displaced people in the Kurdistan Region.

President Francois Hollande and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Baghdad and later flew to the Region’s capital, Erbil.

Hollande brought five tons of medical aid for international organizations in Kurdistan to distribute to hospitals that provide treatment to injured people from Mosul, according to the statement of the French Consulate General in Erbil.

The aid also consisted of food provided by a French company for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

The video below shows the shipment unloaded at Erbil International Airport (EIA) as the French delegation was leaving the Kurdistan Region:

French delegates were received by top senior Kurdish officials including the Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, Head of the Foreign Relations Department Falah Mustafa, and the Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) Masrour Barzani.

The delegation visited a Peshmerga front line in the east of Mosul to review the areas liberated by the Kurdish forces in 2016.

Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched the Mosul military operation to liberate the city, the second-largest in Iraq, from the Islamic State (IS).

There are 500 French troops and military advisers in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

Since 2015, they trained 6,130 Iraqi soldiers including the Counter-Terrorism (CT) forces who continue to make significant advances in Mosul.

France is one of the contributors of the international coalition defeating IS. The nation joined the alliance in September 2014.

According to figures from the French Defense Ministry, France has 14 Rafale fighter jets stationed in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates which provide aerial support to the Iraqi forces.

Moreover, French warplanes have carried out nearly 5,700 sorties, about 1,000 air strikes, and destroyed over 1,700 targets.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany