Following a violent earthquake which struck on Wednesday evening in the north of Algeria, a team from Télécoms Sans Frontières are in the disaster zone.
The technicians from this Non Governmental Organization (NGO) specializing in emergency telecommunications are working in close collaboration with the French embassy and aid centers for the population put in place by the Algerian emergency services.
The quake, registering 6.7 on the Richter scale, has ruptured underwater telephone cables, preventing victims in Algeria from contacting their families on the other side of the Mediterranean.
As well as providing a vital logistical support to the emergency services including satellite telephones, fax and e-mail facilities , Télécoms Sans Frontières are offering to victims several minutes of free international telephone calls. The inhabitants of Boumerdès and 10 other communes in that area can now make contact with their relatives abroad and to ask them for help in the reconstruction of their villages which promises to be a long and difficult process. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
