Algerian Red Crescent’s President honors rescue team following honorable performance in Syria
By: Hana Saada
Algiers- The President of the Algerian Red Crescent, Dr. Ibtissem Hamlaoui, presided over, this morning, a ceremony honoring the Algerian Red Crescent team, consisting of paramedics and doctors, who set off to Syria to take part in rescue and search operations for missing persons following the devastating earthquake that struck the sisterly country, causing countless victims and wreaking terrible infrastructural damage.
The ceremony was attended by the Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic to Algeria, Mr. Namir Al-Ghanem, the Ambassador and Resident Coordinator of United Nations in Algeria. , Mr. Alejandro Alvarez, the representative of UNICEF in Algeria, Ms. Katrina Johnson, the representative of the Spanish Red Cross, Mr. Vicente Sert Martin, the representative of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Algeria, Dr. Chafik Meziane, the representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Algeria, Ms. Valerie Ober, members of the program “Namibia”, as well as a group of Saharawis doctors.
The President also honored the staff of the Public Television, who accompanied professionally the volunteers in the Syrian territories. On the occasion, Dr. Hamlaoui praised, in her speech, the huge efforts deployed by the Algerian Red Crescent volunteers in the field of ambulance and rescue, standing by the brotherly Syrian people in this painful ordeal.
Humanitarian aid, consisting of up to 200 tons of infant formula diapers, medicines, mattresses, clothes, tents as well as widely-consumed foodstuffs, have been sent on board Algerian Air Force transport planes by the Algerian Red Crescent (ARC) to Syria following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked the country.
In this vein, the Algerian Red Crescent specified that these operations took place in application of the instructions of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune and that “the initiative which comes as part of the Crescent’s noble mission in reducing humanitarian sufferings and improving lives of less-advantaged and most vulnerable communities locally and abroad, aims to provide assistance to the brotherly Syrian people who are going through difficult times.
Earlier, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hailed from the disaster-stricken locality of Bustan Al Qasr in Aleppo, the tireless efforts deployed by Algerian teams of the Civil Protection and the Algerian Red Crescent (ARC). In a statement to the Algerian television crew in Syria, during a visit to this locality to assess the damage caused by the earthquake, the Syrian President said “I belong to a generation that learned at a very young age at school that Algeria is the country of the million and a half martyrs, and to whom it was explained how Syrian women had sold their valuables in order to buy aid to be sent to the Algerians” during the liberation war.
The relationship between Algeria and Syria is based on “Syria’s support for Algeria” during the Glorious War of National Liberation, as well as on “Algeria’s support for decades for the Arab and Syrian causes”, he said, adding that “it is not surprising to see this relationship demonstrated in this glorious way through this impressive show of solidarity”.
“We feel that the Algerians have come from deep inside Syria to help the Syrians,” said the Syrian President. “This is the sincere feeling we have always had towards the Algerians,” he added.
