Brussels, 18/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Union, showing its full solidarity with the Ecuadorian people, hit by an extremely powerful earthquake which devastated the north-west of the country on the evening of Saturday 16 April, has made €1 million in emergency aid available to help the victims of this disaster, the European Commission announced on Monday 18 April.
This is initial humanitarian aid, mobilised via the EU civil protection mechanism in response to the request for assistance made by the Ecuadorian authorities and the United Nations,for search and rescue teams to help victims trapped in urban areas, torches and expertise.
“The EU is fully committed to supporting international relief efforts to assist the thousands of people affected by the earthquake in Ecuador. We are already channelling emergency assistance through the EU civil protection mechanism, to provide lifesaving support to those in need”, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianideds said in a press release.
This amount will be increased once the needs have been precisely identified, which is ongoing. A team of experts from the Commission was immediately sent to Quito for this end. Its deployment began at dawn on Monday morning. European civil protection experts who are present in the region are also being deployed in the stricken areas.
As soon as the EU civil protection mechanism was activated, Spain, France and Poland submitted offers. The Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) of the Commission is closely following developments in the situation and is making sure that the offers match the needs.
In order to facilitate searches around the epicentre, precise satellite images of the devastated areas are being provided in real-time to all those involved in the management of this disaster, via Copernicus, the largest civil Earth observation programme.
The emergency aid, financed by ECHO (the humanitarian aid and civil protection department of the Commission), will be channelled through ECHO's partner organisations on the ground.
This earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale - the most powerful Ecuador has experienced since 1979 - has left at least 272 people dead and more than 1,500 injured, according to the provisional figures, which are expected to rise considerably, as well as significant destruction, of homes and key infrastructure. Rescue teams are continuing their searches.
As soon as the scale of the earthquake was known, on Sunday 17 April, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Stylianides expressed their condolences with the families and loved ones of the deceased and the “full solidarity of the EU with the authorities and Ecuadorian population at this difficult time”. (Original in French by Aminata Niang)