The Netherlands is contributing parachutes, food and blankets to the air drops over northern Iraq, aid minister Liliane Ploumen told parliament in a written briefing on Wednesday evening.

The drops are being carried out by the Australian airforce which has been active since Tuesday over the Sinja mountains where thousands of Yazidi are trapped.

The Australians have enough supplies to continue the drops until early next week, the NRC reports.

The Dutch supplies will be flown to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday in a military plane. There they will be handed over to the Australian airforce.

Ploumen calculates the operation will cost around €1m which will come out of the emergency aid budget.

Reaction

Liberal democrat VVD MPs want the government coalition, which includes the VVD, to go further, MP Mark Verheijen wrote in a reaction.

‘The Netherlands must keep looking for possibilities to contribute to the protection of the Yazidis and other groups threatened by the ISIS terror group,’ he wrote.

He also said the European Union must stand ‘as one’ behind the US air attacks on the Islamic State, but says the action so far has been ‘too little, too late’.