{"id":18226,"date":"2018-10-12T20:26:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18226"},"modified":"2018-10-12T20:26:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:26:38","slug":"un-chief-tours-disaster-hit-indonesia-as-world-bank-pledges-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18226","title":{"rendered":"UN chief tours disaster-hit Indonesia as World Bank pledges aid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has visited the Indonesian<\/a> city of Palu to assess the impact of the earthquake and tsunami, as the World Bank announced $5m in financial aid for reconstruction, which authorities say could take two years.<\/p>\n

Guterres’ visit on Friday came as Palu marked the two-week anniversary of the disaster with a mass prayer service attended by thousands of survivors.<\/p>\n

The UN<\/a> chief and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla toured one of the worst-hit areas, and spoke with survivors being treated at an outdoor tent hospital and evacuation centre, praising their “resilience” amid the devastation.<\/p>\n

“We are with the people of Indonesia and Sulawesi,” Guterres said after surveying the devastation at Balaroa, a hard-hit neighbourhood in Palu.<\/p>\n

\n

Here in Palu,I saw first-hand the destruction caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami. To the many people I saw and spoke to: your strength and resilience are remarkable. The U.N. is with you to support government-led rescue and relief efforts. pic.twitter.com\/SbLRZAZ764<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ant\u00f3nio Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 12, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The UN is with you to support government-led rescue and relief efforts,” Guterres posted on his Twitter account, accompanied by a photograph of broken roads and destroyed houses.<\/p>\n

Entire villages were sucked into the earth at Balaroa when soil turned to mush under the force of the quake.<\/p>\n

Guterres is also in Indonesia to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on the island of Bali.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the World Bank announced that it would release $5m in aid to the disaster-hit region of Indonesia,\u00a0World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva said in an announcement on social media.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are committed on giving our support in the form of assistance and rehabilitation,” Georgieva was quoted by Indonesian news website, Tempo as saying, following her visit to Palu.<\/p>\n

The Asian Development Bank has also pledged up to $1bn in emergency loans.<\/p>\n

Focus on recovery<\/h2>\n

The 7.5-magnitude quake and wall of water that tore through the city on Sulawesi island on September 28 killed more than 2,000 and left thousands more missing, presumed dead.<\/p>\n

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\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Indonesian women attend a prayer for the victims during a gathering in Palu on Friday [AP]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rescue teams scoured the wreckage<\/a> for a fortnight before calling off the search, acknowledging as many as 5,000 missing people would never be found.<\/p>\n

Nearly 90,000 people were displaced by the quake, forcing them into evacuation centres across the rubble-strewn city.<\/p>\n

Officials said it could be two years before all the homeless are found permanent accommodation.<\/p>\n

Aid groups said a dearth of clean drinking water and medical supplies remains a very real concern for 200,000 people in urgent need in Palu.<\/p>\n

Donations have begun pouring into the coastal city of 350,000 after a slow start which saw Indonesia criticised for stalling the flow of relief supplies.<\/p>\n

Getting vital supplies to affected areas has proved challenging as flights into Palu remain limited by its small airport, while overland travel is slow.<\/p>\n

Indonesia initially refused international help, saying the army had the situation in hand.<\/p>\n

But as the scale of the disaster became clearer, President Joko Widodo reluctantly agreed to allow in overseas aid.<\/p>\n

The focus has shifted to the recovery effort. But the memory of the dead and missing remains raw.<\/p>\n

Memorial for victims<\/h2>\n

Rescuers have struggled to retrieve the dead, the grim job compounded as mud hardened and bodies decomposed in the tropical heat.<\/p>\n

The government had declared that the worst-hit areas would be sealed off, effectively becoming mass graves.<\/p>\n

Monuments and parks are planned to remember untold numbers of victims buried by soil and rubble in Palu.<\/p>\n

But in a debris-strewn clearing by Palu Bay, thousands gathered Friday before sundown for an emotional prayer service to remember those lost.<\/p>\n

“I prayed that this disaster will end soon,” said Rostin Timaloto, a 58-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

“Only by the grace of God can this ordeal end.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has visited the Indonesian city of Palu to assess the impact of the earthquake and tsunami, as the World Bank announced $5m in financial aid for reconstruction, which authorities say could take two years. Guterres’ visit on Friday came as Palu marked the two-week anniversary of the disaster with a mass…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}