First MSF cargo plane delivers medical and logistical material

NEWS | 12 May 2008

Photo: Nicolas Tucat, AFP | MSF relief cargo destined for Myanmar are being loaded onto an MSF-chartered plane in Bordeaux, France on Friday 9 May 2008.

More than one week after cyclone Nargis devastated the southwest areas of Myanmar, the first Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cargo plane arrived this morning in Yangon at 8:30 local time, loaded with 34 tons of medical and logistical material. After customs clearance, goods have been transferred to MSF warehouses in the city.

Delivered goods include treatments for diarrheal diseases and malaria, therapeutic ready-to-use food, plastic sheeting, water containers, water pumps, and an eigh-person Zodiac boat.

Photo: Nicolas Tucat, AFP.

Three more MSF cargo planes are on their way from Frankfurt, Ostende and Dubai, and expected to arrive on Monday and Tuesday, carrying another 120 tons of material.

MSF’s newly arrived relief material will be sent by trucks to the disaster areas in the coming days. However, the needs of the affected population assessed in the Irrawaddy delta area by MSF aid workers are so significant that many more supplies will have to come into the country to respond to the current crisis.

MSF currently has more than 100 staff in the delta and between 10 and 20 new staff are arriving each day there. In Twantey, Bogaley, Kungyangon, Pathein (Bassein), Haigyi and Laputta, 15 teams are now doing consultations, distributing food, plastic sheeting and other items, purifying water and cleaning up sites where people have sought refuge.

In some areas, MSF has seen increasing constraints imposed by the authorities. In Bogaley for instance, the MSF team is unable to provide as much assistance as they are capable of, to respond to the enormous needs in terms of food and medical care.