China will air transport 35 tons of rescue supplies to Vanuatu

     Recently, an earthquake occurred in the Vanuatu Islands, causing significant casualties and property damage. After the earthquake, China took active actions to provide disaster relief assistance to Vanuatu.

     At the request of Vanuatu, the China Earthquake Administration dispatched four engineering experts to the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila, on December 30th to carry out scientific research on building structures, safety assessments, and secondary disaster investigations in the severely affected areas. This is an emergency dispatch of a post disaster assessment expert team from China to Pacific island countries, which will make a positive contribution to the post disaster reconstruction of Vanuatu.

     In addition, China will use one civil aviation charter flight on January 1, 2025 to airlift a batch of disaster relief aid supplies to the capital of Vanuatu, Port Vila. The charter flight will arrive at 8:00 local time on January 2. It is reported that this batch of emergency disaster relief supplies is about 35 tons and 235 cubic meters, including tents, folding beds, water purification equipment, solar lights, emergency food, medical supplies, etc.

     On December 17th, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu, causing severe damage to buildings in the capital city of Port Vila and other areas. The earthquake has caused multiple houses to collapse, landslides, and damage to bridges and roads, resulting in 14 deaths, over 200 injuries, and affecting a population of approximately 80000. As of now, the Chinese post disaster assessment engineer team has been working intensively in Wawa, providing assistance to Wawa and its people in responding to the disaster.