The ICRC distributes its first aid shipments to Iran
Keystone-SDA
A convoy from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has arrived in Tehran with the first delivery of humanitarian supplies.
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The first five 171-tonne truckloads of essential supplies were delivered from Jordan to the Iranian Red Crescent on Monday.
They are one of the first, if not the first, international supplies to arrive in the country in six weeks.
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Nine other consignments will be handed over to the Red Crescent later this week. Blankets, cooking kits and hygiene equipment are planned for almost 25,000 people. A total of 200 generators and 100 pumps have also been donated for assistance and relief operations.
It is estimated that more than three million people have been displaced in Iran as a result of the Israeli and American strikes. The ICRC hopes to send further consignments of medical equipment and assistance in the coming weeks.
The same applies to the IFRC, whose first convoy arrived in Tehran at midday on Tuesday after leaving Turkey some 48 hours earlier. This aid “is a small quantity” but it is “very important for us”, a spokesperson for the organisation told the press in Geneva. It includes around 200 medical kits to treat serious injuries and 48 tonnes of essential equipment donated by the Turkish Red Crescent.
Restrictions and rising fuel costs have affected humanitarian supplies to Iran. Normally, it would have taken only “a few hours” to airlift the supplies from the United Arab Emirates.
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Adapted from France by AI/mga
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