| China donates relief materials to Kenya, Somalia |
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| Tuesday,January 25,2005 Posted: 14:10 BJT(0610 GMT) |
Hundreds of packages bearing the picture of the Chinese national flag were loaded off a chartered cargo plane on Sunday at the Kenyatta International Airport in Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Those are relief materials worth 10.22 billion shillings (1.31
million US dollars), donated by the Chinese government to Kenya
and Somalia, which were affected by the tsunami disaster as well
as severe drought.
The relief materials include 250 tents, 4,000 toweling
coverlets, 350 power generators, medicines, food and daily
necessities, said Guo Chongli, China's ambassador to Kenya, who
was at the airport to oversee the arrival of the cargo.
"The Chinese government has recently donated 100,000 US dollars
respectively to the Kenyan government and the Somali government.
This time, China sends a planeload of relief materials to further
support the disaster-hit people in both countries," said the
Chinese ambassador.
Officials from the Kenyan and the Somali presidential offices
were at the airport to receive the materials on behalf of their
respective governments.
Both sides expressed their sincere thanks to the Chinese
government and the Chinese people, saying China has always been
helpful and the Chinese people are really friends indeed.
The Chinese donation will be distributed to people in affected
areas as soon as possible, they said.
About 200 Somalis were killed and many more were missing after
the tidal waves struck the Somali coast late December as the
effect of a series of strong undersea Sumatra earthquakes hit the
east African coast. The disaster caused extensive property damage
in the Horn of Africa country.
Kenya also suffered a severe blow in which one person was
killed, several others were injured and many boats destroyed at
the coast. Besides, Kenya has been suffering from drought in 27 of
its 71 districts in eight provinces since last July.
An earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale was registered
on December 26, west of the island of Sumatra, triggering tsunamis,
or tidal waves, in south and southeast Asia.
Over 165,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh,
Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia have been killed in the disaster.
he donation to Kenya and Somalia is just part of China's great
efforts to help tsunami-hit countries. So far the Chinese
government has pledged 121.8 million US dollars of aid to the
affected countries.
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