Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched an immediate response to Cyclone Mekunu, which is crashing into the Arabian Peninsula this weekend, a statement said on Friday.
From its Contingency Fund, QRCS allocated $100,000 for initial relief in Yemen, providing emergency medical services and food and non-food items.
Since Wednesday, QRCS's Disaster Information Management Center (DIMC) has been convened to keep up-to-date with the cyclone and ensure the availability of the relief reserves and field hospital for potential intervention.
During a visit to DIMC, QRCS board member and relief committee head Dr Abdullah al-Nuaimi inspected its work and commended the efforts by the specialist team. "Our mission in Yemen is currently surveying the damage and needs. We pray for our brothers in Oman and Yemen," said Dr al-Nuaimi.
In co-ordination with Yemen Red Crescent Society and relevant UN agencies, the three-month response seeks to minimise the impact of the cyclone, by helping around 10,000 affected people in several districts of Al-Mahrah Governorate.
Under the response plan, the beneficiaries will receive mattresses, blankets, pillows, and food parcels. Also, five well-equipped mobile medical teams will be deployed around the target areas.
In Al-Ghaydah District, the local health centre will be provided with beds, lab and examination equipment, medicines, and medical consumables. This is added to the remuneration of doctors and nurses to be contracted from other districts to provide healthcare services at the centre.
Cyclone Mekunu is forecast to be of the same strength as a Category 2 hurricane at landfall. It comes just days after Cyclone Sagar had struck Yemen, Somalia, and Djibouti, killing at least 20 people and destroying dozens of houses.
For days now, large areas of Yemen have witnessed heavy rain. In Socotra, where flash floods washed away thousands of animals and cut power lines on the island in the Arabian Sea, there are fears that some may be dead, QRCS added.
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