The IDB President, Ahmad Mohamed Ali, indicated that the IDB is providing US$ 1,780,000 following the floods that have afflicted nearly half of the land area of Bangladesh, displaced a large number of persons and destroyed several academic facilities of the country. He stated that US$ 270,000 of the amount will be provided as an emergency grant for the purchase of needed relief items in coordination with the competent government authorities of Bangladesh and that the remaining US$ 1,500,000 will be provided as a concessionary loan designed to help rehabilitate affected public utilities.

The President further stated that the IDB is providing a grant of US$ 50 thousand for the purchase of relief items and medicines to help the victims of hostilities at the Nahrel Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon in collaboration with the Arab Red Crescent and Cross Society based in Riyadh, the Lebanese Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent for the purchase and distribution of relief items.

He added that the IDB had previously provided a grant of US$ 100 thousand to the Union of Arab Doctors based in Cairo and the Egyptian Red Crescent Society to assist stranded Palestinians at the Rafah border crossing following its closure by Israel and thus put an end to their plight. The IDB President commended the Egyptian Red Crescent and the Union of Arab Doctors for their efforts. He also said that the IDB had previously dispatched a mission assigned to monitor the distribution of the relief items.