Source/Credit: TheTimesOfMalta: Friday, August 26, 2011 , by Christian Peregin
Malta sent more than €500,000 worth of aid to embattled Tripoli yesterday. Four hundred tonnes of food and 250 tonnes of medicine were loaded onto the ship Al Ensitisar, which left for Tripoli in the afternoon, according to a spokesman for the Malta-based NGO Igo-Aid foundation.
This is the same large fishing vessel that had been instrumental in sending aid to Misurata some months back when Malta was the only lifeline to the worst hit city in the Libyan conflict.
“We need to keep the aid coming. There will never be enough,” said Mario Debono, one of the businessmen involved in the NGO, as he appealed for businesses and individuals to contribute.
“Malta is the closest country to Tripoli and we have the stocks they need, so we can be the first to react to the appeals,” he said. About 15 doctors (not Maltese) are also on the boat and are expected to go straight to the Tripoli hospital, which has come under increasing pressure as the fighting in the capital continues.
International news reports have in the past days focused on the desperate situation developing due to the lack of resources and an influx of casualties. The Maltese government donated 45 pallets of medicines, bandages and other medical and surgical equipment, worth €130,000, the spokesman for Igo-Aid said. The boat is also carrying every oxygen cylinder the foundation could lay its hands on in Malta, in light of serious shortages in Tripoli.
Categories: Human Rights, Humanity First, Malta