ALGIERS, 24 May 2003 — Aid in all forms poured in to Algeria from a host of countries and international organizations yesterday to help the North African country cope with a devastating earthquake which has killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands injured.
As rescue workers, sniffer dogs, medical equipment and staff, and technical experts arrived from around the world, people in Algeria’s densely populated northern coastal region gingerly began yesterday returning to their homes. Many had spent the night outdoors, fearing aftershocks following the quake that rocked their homes at evening dinner time on Wednesday could bring down the buildings they live in, as it had done to entire blocks of apartments in and around Algiers.
In the town of Boumerdes, 50 km (30 miles) east of Algiers and the hardest hit in the quake, more than 950 people were killed, many of them crushed to death under tons of concrete when their apartment buildings collapsed in the quake.
France, the former colonial power in Algeria, was one of the first countries to come to the aid of the North African country after the quake, said by the French seismological service to have measured six points on the Richter scale.
One-hundred-twenty civil defense officers left France Thursday along with sniffer dogs and specialist equipment to help emergency workers in Algiers and nearby as they desperately worked to try to free the hundreds of people feared still trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Algerian officials have warned that the toll — put yesterday at 1,467 dead and more than 7,000 injured — was likely to rise further.
A team from the French-based Telecoms Sans Frontieres (Telecoms without Borders — TSF) aid agency flew to Algeria with the French rescuers, and will equip emergency teams in Algeria with satellite telecommunications equipment.
“Satellite is the only viable means of telecommunication,” a spokesman for TSF said, explaining that undersea phone cables that link Algeria to Europe had been sliced in several places by the quake.
“TSF’s priority is firstly to help the emergency services... Our equipment will allow a link to be established between rescue teams,” the agency said. Turkey, where a quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale killed some 180 people in the eastern province of Bingol earlier this month, has sent rescue workers, and Italy, where 27 children and their teacher died when their school collapsed in a quake last October, has sent the first of three emergency teams to join the rescue effort. A field hospital and medical staff were due to follow from Italy.
A team of 75 rescue workers left Sweden yesterday morning along with a dozen sniffer dogs and tons of relief material, the Swedish rescue agency said. Russia has sent a team of more than 57 rescuers, including 24 doctors, and sniffer dogs, officials there said.
Germany has already sent a first group of rescue workers, the German Interior Ministry said, with more specialists, sniffer dogs and equipment due to follow.
A team from the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) arrived in Algiers Thursday, an AFP correspondent witnessed, and the European Commission has said it plans to launch a joint aid operation.
In a statement from the EU presidency issued in Athens, the European Union said it was “ready to offer all possible assistance in order to alleviate the suffering of the Algerian people.” The government of Spain, where the tremor damaged or sunk boats around the Balearic islands in the Mediterranean, on Thursday dispatched the first of three planes with rescue and medical equipment to Algeria.
US President George W. Bush has pledged to aid the victims, saying, “The United States stands ready to help.”
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun pledged $100,0000 in relief funds for Algeria, while Yonhap news agency reported 21 rescue workers had been sent to the North African country.
Algerian government radio on Thursday appealed for medical staff and blood donors, and police reinforcements were deployed across the country to prevent looting.
