By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS– New humanitarian aid, consisting of 70-plus tons of infant formula diapers, medicines, first aid, mattresses, clothes, as well as widely-consumed foodstuffs, have been sent on board three Algerian Air Force transport planes by the Algerian Red Crescent (ARC) to Syria following the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked the country, causing countless victims and wreaking terrible infrastructural damage.
In this vein, the Algerian Red Crescent specified that the operation “takes place in application of the instructions of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune” and that “the initiative aims to provide assistance to the brotherly Syrian people who are going through difficult times”.
Earlier, humanitarian aid consisting of 115 tons of pharmaceutical and food products and tents intended for Syria, in addition to aid of 95 tons of various products for Turkey have been sent by the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA) as part of its noble mission in reducing humanitarian sufferings and improving lives of less-advantaged and most vulnerable communities locally and abroad.
The operation was supervised by the Minister of the Interior, Local Assemblies and Urban Planning Brahim Merad in the presence of the director general of civil protection Boualem Boughlef, the president of the Algerian Red Crescent Ibtissem Hamlaoui, as well as the Syrian ambassador to Algiers Namir El Ghanem.
On this occasion, the Minister of the Interior, in a statement to the press, emphasized the strong commitment of the Algerian state to international cooperation and assistance, particularly in the face of natural disasters, insisting on the pledge and the personal attention given to this operation by the President of the Republic, who is closely monitoring the situation.
He noted President Tebboune’s willingness for” Algeria to be at the forefront of the States to arrive in the affected areas to provide first aid to the victims’, explaining that” the President of the Republic has instructed that all measures should be taken to this effect.”
For his part, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hailed, on Friday, 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) currently operating in Syria to take part in rescue and search operations for missing persons.
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.
