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UAE President orders US$100-M for quake relief in Syria, Türkiye

February 12, 2023, 3:00 pm

<p>UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan </p>

UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan 

ABU DHABI – United Arab Emirates President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has ordered an aid package totalling USD100 million for earthquake relief in Syria and Türkiye.

The aid will be divided equally between Syria and Türkiye, which both suffered mass casualties and large-scale damage to buildings and infrastructure in yesterday’s magnitude 7.8 quake and aftershocks.

Aid from Dubai ruler

Meanwhile, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, directed the dispatch of urgent humanitarian aid worth 50 million Emirati dirhams to the Syrian people, in order to provide relief to those affected by the most devastating earthquake that the country has witnessed in decades.

Al Maktoum affirmed that the UAE is ready to support the Syrian brothers in facing this great calamity that befell them, indicating that the UAE will also stand by the Syrian people, and will continue to extend a helping hand to them until they overcome this ordeal, as an expression of its noble human values.

The aid will be delivered in the form of ration parcels through the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives to the most affected groups in brotherly Syria, many of whose regions were affected at dawn on Monday by the repercussions of the earthquake that claimed the lives of dozens of the Syrian people.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai (WAM photo)

Since its establishment, the UAE has been keen to make humanitarian and development assistance an essential part of its foreign relations, and for years the UAE has topped the global lists of the largest donors in the field of official development assistance (ODA) in comparison to its national income.

The urgent humanitarian aid to the brotherly Syrian people embodies the Ninth Principle of ‘’ The Principles of the 50’’ which states that “the UAE’s foreign humanitarian aid is an essential part of its vision and moral duty towards less fortunate peoples and that the foreign humanitarian aid is not tied to religion, race, color or culture”.

(WAM photo)

Meanwhile, Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), Chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation and Honorary President of the Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), has directed the Sheikha Fatima Fund for Refugee Women to provide 50 million Emirate dirhams to support the Bridge of Goodness campaign launched by the ERC to support the ongoing humanitarian and relief efforts for the earthquake-affected people in Syria and Turkiye.

Sheikha Fatima's directives support the UAE's leadership role to mitigate the repercussions of the earthquakes that struck both countries and affected the lives of thousands of peoples and fall within the framework of her humanitarian stance in times of disasters. (WAM)

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