Dubai co-ordinates mission to send supplies worth Dh2m to help medics treat wounded
A plane took off from Dubai yesterday carrying about 40 tonnes of medical equipment to help Beirut’s hospitals treat thousands of people injured in the city’s port explosions.
Syringes, bandages and surgical gowns were among the supplies on board. The vital cargo was worth more than Dh2 million.
Lorries carried 180 pallets of aid from Dubai’s International Humanitarian City to the aircraft, which departed the Dubai Airport Royal Air Wing at about 5.45pm.
The plane was provided for free on the orders of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
The aid was supplied by the World Health Organisation and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in co-ordination with the Ministry of Health and Prevention.
Teams worked through the night to prepare the packages at warehouses in International Humanitarian City, where dozens of aid agencies operate.
Nevien Attalla, operations manager for the WHO’s Dubai centre, said the call to prepare aid packages came from the organisation’s representative office in Beirut at 9pm on Tuesday, hours after a blast at the main port tore through the city.
She said 23 tonnes of supplies were distributed to help hospital staff in Beirut treat thousands of patients.
“We are offering medical trauma kits and surgical kits. Overnight we doubled the quantity as more information about the situation came in,” Ms Attalla said.
The aid included 10 trauma kits and 10 surgical kits, each of which contains enough supplies to treat up to 100 people.
“More may be sent depending on what is needed,” Ms Attalla said.
George Maina, warehouse manager for IFRC, said his organisation sent 20 tonnes of personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, gloves, surgical caps and gowns. Those supplies were to protect medical staff from coronavirus.
“We loaded 94 pallets of PPE on to five trucks, that’s about 20 metric tonnes in total,” he said.
“We were able to move quickly and our teams worked through the night to prepare the freight, which will soon reach thousands of beneficiaries in Lebanon.
“International Humanitarian City donated the flight, which will carry the items, and they provided us with free transport to move the supplies to the airport.”
Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation, said the UAE would stand by its neighbours in times of need.
“The UAE’s commitment to provide various forms of support in such situations underlines our solidarity with all brotherly and friendly countries in times of crisis,” Ms Al Hashimy said.
“We will work to assess the situation to evaluate what further assistance we can provide.”