Brussels, 22/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EU will be cooperating with the UN to aid the victims of the torrential storms that hit the Tindouf region of Algeria recently, leaving some 12,000 Western Saharan families living in refugee camps without shelter. The UN's Civilian Protection Mechanism (CPM, known in French as MIC, run by DG Environment at the Commission) for coordinating national resources that can be mobilised by volunteer countries, has been activated. The CPM's key body, the Surveillance and Information Centre, has received a request from the UN High Commission for Refugees to arrange the sending of 2000 tents to Algeria from Jordan. Portugal, Italy and France rapidly provided air transport facilities and further offers are expected to follow. This is the first time that military resources have been explicitly requested for emergency civilian operations via the CPM. The Commission has already paid out some EUR 900,000 in emergency humanitarian aid for the victims (see EUROPE 9132).