A flight left Italy on Friday for Niger carrying humanitarian supplies for thousands of refugees and people left homeless and in severe hardship after recent violence in the southeast Diffa region, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The aid includes tents, water purifiers, electricity generators, hygiene and medical aid and the airlift was ordered by Italy's deputy foreign minister Emanuela del Re at the request of Niger's government, the statement said.
The flight took off from the southern Italian city of Brindisi, bound for Niger's capital Niamey, according to the statement
Armed men killed dozens of civilians and displaced thousands during increasingly violent and frequent attacks in the Diffa region last month, according to the United Nations.
The spike in violence has forced more than 18,000 people to flee their homes, many for the second or third time, the UN says.
Nearly 250,000 people, about half of them refugees from neighbouring Nigeria, have sought protection in Diffa from Islamist militant group Boko-Haram, according to the United Nations.
