The Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize has decided to award the Prize to Giuseppina Nicolini, Mayor of Lampedusa (Italy) and to the nongovernmental organization SOS Méditerranée (France) for their work to save the lives of refugees and migrants and welcome them with dignity.

“After examining conditions around the world, the Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize determined that refugees and migrants constitute one of the crucial issues of our day, notably in the Mediterranean where nearly 13,000 men, women and children have perished in shipwrecks since 2013,” declared the acting President of the Jury, Joaquim Chissano, former President of Mozambique.