Humanitarian aid arriving from countries, organizations

Humanitarian aid arriving from countries, organizations

International relief aid and equipment that will be used to save lives and deal with the consequences of the floods in the afflicted areas is arriving daily, with teams from the Russian Federation, EU member states and regional countries working with their Serbian colleagues on the ground around the clock to evacuate and help those in danger.

The United Nations, the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia and other countries have sent equipment and food.

A plane carrying relief aid from Baku, Azerbaijan, landed late Monday at the Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade. The aid includes motorboats and plastic boats, generators, boat engines, tents, rescue equipment, pumps, gas bottles, flashlights, canisters and blankets.

A fourth shipment of Russian aid - 28 tons of baby and solid food, sugar, sleeping bags, tents and another power generator - arrived at the Konstantin Veliki airport in Niš.

The UN has established a team within the Emergency situations sector to coordinate the relief effort with the Serbian authorities and help local authorities deal with the consequences of the floods.

Also, an EU team for relief facilitation of the Community Mechanism for Civil Protection is in Serbia in order to help the country's authorities and coordinate the assistance coming from the EU.

Rescue teams from Russia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro and Croatia are involved in the relief efforts. They brought with them rescue equipment and pumps. More pumping teams, from Denmark, Slovakia and Germany, will arrive on Tuesday.

Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Macedonia, Hungary, Belarus and EULEX have sent helicopters to assist with relief.

Those teams coordinate with the Interior Ministry helicopter unit and the Serbian Army and have been deployed to Obrenovac, Lazarevac, Šabac, Sremska Mitrovica, Jagodina, Praćin, Kolubara, Progar and the power plant Nikola Tesla.

Aid in the form of food, water, clothing and baby supplies is coming in from the Serbian people living abroad, but also from companies and businessmen from the surrounding countries.