Qatar Airways flies essential supplies to Sudan
Qatar Airways Cargo yesterday shipped essential supplies donated for flood-hit Sudan on freighter flight QR8792.
The supplies were sent from Doha to Khartoum free of charge, Qatar Airways said in a tweet. The donations will be distributed on the ground in Sudan by Qatar Charity. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive HE Akbar al-Baker was present for the loading of the aircraft, and was joined by Sudan’s ambassador to Qatar Abdulrahim al-Sediq, Qatar Charity CEO Yousef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari and Hamad International Airport chief operating officer Badr al-Meer.
The Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and Sudan’s ministry of health have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support the preparedness plan for health emergencies in Sudan.
Sudan’s Health Minister-designate Dr Osama Abdel-Rahim signed on behalf of Sudan’s health ministry, while Qatar’s ambassador to Sudan Abdulrahman bin Ali al-Kubaisi signed on behalf of the QFFD.
The QFFD also signed a grant agreement with the Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) to finance a project to strengthen emergency health system preparedness in Sudan.
The agreement was signed for the QFFD by al-Kubaisi and for QRCS by its secretary-general Ali bin Hassan al-Hammadi.
The signing ceremony was attended by officials from the Sudan health ministry, the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Khartoum, and members of the Qatar embassy.
In his speech, Abdel-Rahim thanked the Qatar government for standing with Sudan in these circumstances, pointing out that the health system in Sudan has been in a state of emergency since the coronavirus pandemic and the floods that swept the country recently.
The minister said that the agreement is focused on rehabilitating the infrastructure and training health cadres working in the field of health emergencies.
Abdel-Rahim said he hopes this agreement would be a building block for future partnerships between Sudan and Qatar in various health fields, while highlighting the common past, present and future between the two peoples of Qatar and Sudan.
Al-Kubaisi said in his speech that the two agreements come within the framework of the distinguished relations between Qatar and Sudan and the historical ties between the peoples of the two countries, as well as in response to the declaration of the humanitarian emergency by the Sudanese government.
He underlined Qatar’s provision of humanitarian grants and development assistance through the Qatar Fund for Development, while pointing to the continuing development support by Qatar, the last of which was the relief aid that came under the directives from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad alThani to mitigate the effects of floods, torrents and rains in many regions of Sudan.
Al-Kubaisi said that the two agreements would target several projects in the states of White Nile, Sennar and Kassala, with a value of $1.5mn, in addition to $500,000 in technical assistance to the ministry of health to help it confront the humanitarian disaster caused by the floods.