UAE Red Cresent distributes aid in Sudan

The UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) has distributed tens of tonnes of relief materials to an area of southern Sudan, the state news agency WAM has reported.

The UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) has distributed tens of tonnes of food, clothes, blankets and other relief materials to an area of southern Sudan, the state news agency WAM has reported. The RCA sent the aid to people in Buma Mountain, Jonglei State, 700 kilometres east of Juba, Southern Sudan, an area where diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid, and waterborne diseases are common, especially among children. The RCA also distributed food aid and clothes for children and in-patients at the Juba Educational Hospital. The initiative was part of a relief programme launched by Hamdan Bin Zayed, Chairman of RCA and Ruler's Representative in the Western Region, to improve the humanitarian situation in Southern Sudan. Aid workers carried the relief consignment from Juba to Buma Mountain in a C-130 aircraft capable of take-offs and landings from unprepared runways. The humanitarian relief operation targets refugees who live in scattered communities and thatched huts in the jungles. The visit is the first by an Arab delegation to get a first-hand experience of the situation, which worsens during the current rain season. Dr Dario Koron, the director of the Juba Educational Hospital, led RCA team members on a tour to the hospital. The facility suffers a severe shortage of medicine, medical equipment and even beds and proper wards.