Israeli Aid Delegation Arrives in Equatorial Guinea in Wake of Massive Explosion

Jerusalem, 11 March, 2021 (TPS) -- A joint Israeli aid delegation from the IDF, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs landed in Equatorial Guinea on Thursday to help the African country in wake of a massive explosion at a military base that killed over 100 people and injured hundreds of others.

The delegation includes intensive care physicians, pediatricians and specialists from a variety of medical fields, and nurses and paramedics from hospitals throughout Israel.

The IDF’s Medical Corps, which for the first time since 1999 assumed leadership for such a delegation, made extensive preparations that included the establishment of two treatment teams, including professionals from all relevant fields as well as ancillary medical equipment.

The delegation will focus on providing life-saving medical care in hospitals in the city, led by medical staff and injury treatment specialists.

The delegation is headed by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Colonel Dr. Noam Fink, and has about 60 members, most of them doctors and nurses.

The deputy commander of the delegation is the commander of the rescue and training division at the Home Front Command, Colonel Shlomi Ben Mocha.

“The IDF, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to assist on behalf of the State of Israel in any disaster that may be required, and will contribute its experience and capabilities around the world,” an IDF spokesperson stated.

The explosion in the port city of Bata on Sunday over 105 people and injured at least another 615.

President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo said in a statement that “Bata was the location of an accident caused by the negligence and carelessness of a unit charged with the care and protection of the stores of dynamite and explosives next to the ammunition at the Nkoantoma Military Base, which caught fire from the burning of nearby land by neighbors, causing an explosion in the dynamite and explosives store and subsequently the ammunition.”

Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa’s smallest countries, with some 850,000 residents, and Bata is one of the country’s two cities.

Israel regularly dispatches rescue delegations and aid to countries that have experienced disasters of various kinds.