Following the terrible earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria yesterday, Monday February 6, Algeria and as usual did not fail to respond to the call for solidarity, by delivering humanitarian aid but also elements of civil protection to help local teams in the search for their missing.
It is in this context that the Minister of the Interior, Local Authorities and Regional Planning Brahim Merad chaired yesterday, Monday February 6 during the evening an operation to send a second team of rescuers, and emergency humanitarian aid to Syria and Turkey, hard hit by a powerful earthquake that struck entire regions of the two countries early Monday, claiming more than 3,700 victims according to a latest provisional overall report.
Indeed, on the instructions of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, humanitarian aid was sent to the two countries in the presence of the Director General of Civil Protection Boualem Boughlef, the President of the Algerian Red Crescent Ibtissem Hamlaoui, as well as the Ambassador of Syria in Algiers, as part of an emergency humanitarian response to take care of the victims of this terrible earthquake.
This humanitarian aid consists of 115 tons of pharmaceutical and food products and tents for Syria, in addition to aid of 95 tons of various products for Turkey.
Algeria flies to the aid of Syria
A second team made up of 86 emergency workers specializing in natural disasters from civil protection rallied Monday evening from the Boufarik air base in Syria to participate in the relief operations.
It was during a statement to the press that the Minister of the Interior insisted on President Tebboune’s desire for “Algeria to be ahead of the States which come to the aid of the two brotherly countries”, explaining also that “the President of the Republic has given instructions for all measures to be taken to this effect”, insisting that “civil protection teams be among the first to arrive in the affected areas so that they give the first disaster relief”.
Merad continued that “elements of civil protection must quickly start their relief operations as soon as they arrive in the disaster areas in Syria”. He also praised the efforts of the ANP, as soon as the disaster was announced, aimed at making a success of the humanitarian mission decided by Algeria for the “two brotherly countries”.
What about the aid sent by the Algerian Red Crescent?
In addition, the President of the Algerian Red Crescent announced that 40 volunteers specialized in first aid have been sent to the disaster areas under this humanitarian operation, indicating that “contacts remain permanent with the Turkish and Syrian Red Crescents to assess the humanitarian needs of both countries”.
As for the Syrian ambassador, he praised Algeria’s outpouring of solidarity for his country “in these difficult circumstances”, affirming that “this is neither strange, let alone a new fact for a country linked to the Syria by a particular history and ancestral fraternal relations. »
In the morning of Monday, a first group of Civil Protection, it is recalled, left, on the orders of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune for Turkey in order to participate in the rescue and relief operations of the victims of this earthquake recorded in the south of the country, near Syria.
