Ireland is today dispatching thousands of blankets, tents, cooking kits, and other urgent supplies to assist thousands of Nigerian refugees in Northern Cameroon.

The airlift, worth around €900,000, will be sent this weekend from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Accra, Ghana.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, said he is gravely concerned about the serious security situation in north-eastern Nigeria.

He also said that large parts of the Nigerian border with Cameroon, Niger and Chad have fallen under Boko Haram's control.

More than 87 tonnes of Irish stocks will provide relief to thousands of vulnerable families that have recently sought refuge in Northern Cameroon.