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Int'l organizations activate humanitarian aid plans after Ecuador earthquake

Xinhua, April 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

International organizations have activated humanitarian aid plans for Ecuador after a devastating earthquake destroyed the South American country's north coast on Saturday, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility said on Tuesday.

"For the national government, international aid is fundamental to easing the situation that thousands of citizens are currently facing after the disaster," said the ministry in a press release.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has deployed work groups in the disaster zones to facilitate shelters for the people who have lost their homes, according to the ministry.

Sonia Aguilar, UNHCR's public information officer in Ecuador, confirmed that in the coming hours the UN body will send enough aid to care for around 40,000 displaced people.

The aid includes family-sized tents, 900 marquees, 180 repellent kits to avoid tropical epidemics, 15,000 sleeping mats and kitchen utensils.

The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) will send 20,000 water purifying tablets for the affected population and a brigade of specialists to evaluate the state of the children in the critical areas.

The European Union (EU) has donated a million euros as an initial amount of aid for the victims. It will also send experts "to help with the relief efforts and to evaluate the need for additional aid," according to the Ecuadorian ministry.

The aid from the EU was activated at the requests of the Ecuadorian government and the United Nations, which called for emergency aid along with urban search and rescue teams and lighting equipment.

Spain, France, Poland and other European countries have also offered their assistance, according to the ministry.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have sent a group of experts from their offices in the United States, Panama, Colombia and Peru to help deal with the emergency, the ministry said.

The current death toll from the magnitude-7.8 earthquake stands at 499 with more than 4,000 people injured and 231 missing people, according to Ecuador's Prosecutor's Office. Endi