Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Banda Aceh (Fides Service) - The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other UN agencies have started relief operations along the west cost of the Indonesian province of Aceh, the area worst hit by the tsunami, up to now inaccessible.
Two members of the UNHCR emergency team reached Meulaboh, 200 km south west of the main city and opened an office to which aid from UN agencies such as World Food programme and UNICEF will converge .
UNHCR is supplying tents, water cans and plastic sheets “to guarantee an integrated response”, said UNHCR team leader Alan Vernon in Banda Aceh.
UNHCR has started loading trucks with 400 tons of emergency aid for Banda Aceh. The supplies arrived last week in Jakarta from UNHCR logistic basis in Copenhagen e Dubai.
In agreement with the authorities in Aceh, UNHCR will supply emergency shelters, building materials for reconstruction, as well as basic necessities as well as logistic support with regard to transport. Aid will be distributed to 175,000 people in Aceh, the area most affected by the tsunami.
Vernon said that half of Meulaboh’s population of 60,000 has been uprooted. Last week a helicopter mission began inspecting the area but many coastal areas are still isolated .
UNHCR has 18 worker in Banda Aceh, made available by its Geneva headquarters. This is the first time that UNHCR, with a mandate to assist refugees fleeing persecution or oppression, intervenes to help victims of natural disasters.
On January 6 UNHCR made an appeal for 75 million dollars to provide emergency living, basic necessities and logistic support for thousands of tsunami victims in Indonesia, Sri Lanka e Somalia.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/1/2005 righe 35 parole 367)
