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Quakes: No major relief needed
14/09/2007 07:23 - (SA)
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| A woman stands in the debris of her house which was destroyed by an earthquake in Muara Maras, Bengkulu, Sumatra island, Indonesia. (Irwin Fedriansyah, AP) |
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Jakarta - A major international relief effort is not required on Indonesia's Sumatra island in the aftermath of powerful earthquakes that struck this week, the UN said in a statement on Friday.
A nine-person UN assessment team arrived in Sumatra's Bengkulu on Thursday.
The team met with government officials and visited a local hospital before deciding that "a major international relief operation was not required at this time".
"The response measures taken by Indonesia were quite effective, and demonstrate how preparedness can go a long way towards meeting needs in the aftermath of a disaster," said senior UN official John Holmes.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla had informed the UN that a national response to the disaster would be sufficient, said the statement from the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs in New York.
Tents, medicine and food were being dispatched by ministries with the military holding transport on standby, it added.
Indonesian officials said that at least 13 people were killed in the series of quakes, which began with an 8.4-magnitude temblor that jolted Sumatra's west coast on Wednesday at dusk.
- AFP
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