Press Release
12 May 2008
First UK aid flight leaves for Burma
The UK’s first aid flight for Burma is leaving for Rangoon today, announced
Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander. The flight
contains plastic sheets, which will provide desperately needed shelter for over
9,000 families affected by Cyclone Nargis.
Four more plane loads of aid are on standby. The UK’s emergency operations
team is working in Rangoon with the UN and aid agencies to identify what and
where the greatest needs are, and to oversee the UK’s assistance into the
country.
Douglas Alexander said:
“The situation inside Burma is becoming ever more desperate for the hundreds
of thousands of people affected by this disaster.
“There is now the very real danger of a second tragedy developing on the back
of the first – the risk of water-borne infections grows with every day of
inaction by the Burmese authorities.
“The UK is working hard at a diplomatic level to secure international and
regional agreement in how best to get aid into Burma, but we are also sending
humanitarian aid. Our first flight is scheduled to leave Dubai tonight and has
been granted permission to land in Rangoon. We are ready to do much more and we
continue to urge the active cooperation of the Burmese authorities.”
Douglas Alexander has called for an emergency meeting of EU Development
Ministers and has also asked the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Navy to
direct HMS Westminster to international waters off Burma.
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Notes to Editors
1. Cyclone Nargis developed in the Bay of Bengal during the
week 28 April to 2 May. It made landfall on 2 May as a Category three cyclone in the Irrawaddy delta region, approximately 250 km southwest of Rangoon. The storm
then tracked inland, directly hitting the capital itself late the same night.
Current estimates of dead and missing are over 200,000, with more than 1.5
million people in need of emergency assistance.
2. The first UK aid flight will
leave for Burma from DFID’s Dubai warehouse later today. The plastic sheeting on
board will be delivered to the UN.
 Library footage of DFID staff working in our
UK warehouse in Kemble, Gloucestershire
3. Daily updates on the response to Cyclone Nargis are posted on
this
website
4. The UK team received visas from the Burmese embassy
on Thursday and took to the first available flight to the region.
5. HMS
Westminster will arrive off the coast of Burma in the next two days. We do not
envisage that it will play a major role in the aid effort.
For further information please contact Sarah Saxton on 020 7023 0944 or 020
7023 0600 or visit this website.
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