Port-au-Prince, Oct 12 (EFE).- A Spanish aircraft arrived here Wednesday carrying 12 tons of humanitarian aid for distribution to regions of Haiti devastated by Hurricane Matthew, which is blamed for nearly 500 deaths in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
The supplies, including medications, hygiene products, water-resistant tarps and mosquito nets, were provided by the Red Cross, Medicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) and Oxfam Intermon, Carmen Rodriguez, coordinator of the Haitian office of Spain’s AECID foreign-aid agency, told EFE.
A second Spanish plane is due Thursday in Port-au-Prince with 13 tons of water-purification equipment from AECID’s regional logistics center in Panama, she said.
The Spanish government has been in touch with Haitian authorities from the start of the current emergency, the AECID office said in a statement.
“Spain has worked extensively with Haiti, we have been in Haiti. The situation is horrifying,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said last Saturday.
Matthew left 473 people dead and 339 others injured, according to the latest bulletin from the Haitian government, while some 175,000 residents were forced from their homes.
But first responders and local officials say the death toll is above 800.