Logistics aid, including tents and other necessities, for evacuees poured in during the emergency response period. Other aid, in the form of tents, has also been delivered aboard a Hercules plane on Tuesday night.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) sent an MI-8 helicopter to distribute relief aid to victims of a magnitude-7.2 earthquake that had hit South Halmahera District in North Maluku Province on Sunday evening, (July 14).

"Logistics aid, including tents and other necessities, for evacuees poured in during the emergency response period. Other aid, in the form of tents, had also been delivered aboard a Hercules aircraft on Tuesday night," acting chief of the agency's data and information center and public relations, Agus Wibowo, noted in a press statement released on Wednesday.

The BNPB had earlier also dispatched a tanker with relief aid to South Halmahera. The aid was later loaded onto small ships to reach the affected areas.

The South Halmahera district government has set up a command post to help quake victims during the emergency response period. In addition, the district government has cooperated with the Indonesian military and police to set up public kitchens to serve nine evacuee camps in the South Halmahera district capital of Labuha.

An earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, rattled South Halmahera on Sunday evening. The quake's epicenter was located 62 kilometers northeast of Labuha, at a depth of 62 kilometers.

The tremor has reportedly claimed two lives and displaced 1,104 people.

The displaced people are being accommodated at nine locations in Gane Barat, Gane Timur, and Bacan Timur.

Secretary of the North Maluku Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD) Ali Yau stated on Monday that his office had deployed personnel to evaluate the condition in several villages in Gane Barat after the powerful earthquake struck.

The Ternate military command 152/Babullah had also deployed a platoon of officers to secure South Halmahera.

The South Halmahera district administration has declared a week-long emergency response period that will end on July 21.



Translator: Dewanto Samodro/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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