REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian government through the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) estimates that the entire shipment of humanitarian social assistance for civilians victims of the Palestinian and Sudanese conflicts will arrive in Cairo, Egypt and Port of Sudan in the next three days, Thursday (4/4/2024).
BNPB chief Suharyanto, in a statement received in Jakarta on Monday, said that on Monday evening (1/4/2024) or early Tuesday morning (2/4/2024) Indonesia will dispatch Team Aju to Cairo, Egypt led by Brigjen Pol (Purn) Ary Laksmana Widjaja and Port of Sudan led by TNI Brigadier Lukmansyah.
The deployment of the Aju Team was tasked to coordinate with the authorities in Sudan and Egypt with the assistance of KBRI Khartoum and KBRI Cairo in order to prepare the Indonesian delegation that will bring humanitarian aid to Sudanese and Palestinian citizens, through the Egyptian Government.
Furthermore, on Wednesday (3/4/2024) Indonesia will send two humanitarian aid delegations to Sudan and Egypt, which President Joko Widodo plans to remove from Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. The delegation to Cairo Egypt will be led by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture of Indonesia (Menko PMK), Muhadjir Effendy, while for the delegation to Port of Sudan, Sudan, it will be headed by BNPB Chief Lieutenant General Suharyanto.
“The entire delegation will arrive in Cairo and the Port of Sudan on Thursday, April 4, 2024 to deliver humanitarian aid and conduct some meeting activities with the relevant authorities in Egypt and Sudan,” he said.
Earlier, the Indonesian Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, received a diplomatic memorandum from Egypt and Sudan requesting humanitarian assistance for people there facing conflict and disease outbreaks. In the memorandum, the Egyptian Government expects the Indonesian Government's assistance in handling Palestinian refugees entering Egyptian territory, around Rafah Egypt (North Sinai Desert), as a result of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, Palestine.
As of March 2024, the victims of Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip amounted to 32,333 dead (12,900 children and 8,400 women), 74,694 wounded and 8,100 missing. Following Israel's ground invasion of the North and Central Gaza areas, Gazans fled to the South Gaza - Rafah area which became the last safest area for them.
Currently, the Egyptian city of Rafah hosts more than 1.5 million Palestinian refugees, for which the Egyptian government sends a list of requests for assistance in the form of certain types of goods that are urgently needed in the refugees.
The Government of Sudan also expects similar assistance to the Government of Indonesia for its people who are victims of internal government conflicts and outbreaks of cholera. Sudan announced there were at least 2,525 suspected cases of diarrhoea or acute liquid cholera suffered by local people, so in need of medical equipment, if not dealt with immediately, the number would increase.
On humanitarian grounds, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi revealed that, based on the direction of President Joko Widodo, the Indonesian Government will provide aid to Egypt and Sudan in the form of goods according to the list of requests submitted by each country, with the value of aid amounting to 1 million US dollars or about Rp 15 billion per country.
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