Italy, however, is far from the first country that has been aided by Russia in this fashion. On April 16 a major earthquake rocked Ecuador, killing over 600 people and leaving thousands of people homeless. But on April 22 an EMERCOM Il-76 cargo aircraft landed in the country, carrying a much-needed 30-tonnes cargo of humanitarian aid, including tents, portable generators and food supplies.
The agency also rendered similar assistance to Tajikistan in January 2016 and to Kyrgyzstan in December 2015, helping the two nations to accommodate earthquake victims by providing food supplies and necessary equipment.
And in the aftermath of an April 2015 earthquake in Nepal EMERCOM not only sent humanitarian aid to the country but also deployed a team of highly-trained specialists – including climbers, dog teams, medics and psychologists – to help look for survivors.
But earthquakes aren’t the only type of calamity that the ministry helps other nations to deal with. On August 13 two of EMERCOM’s Be-200 amphibious aircraft flew to Portugal to help contain the wildfires ravaging the country. The planes got to work the following day and by August 21 had doused nine wildfires, helping save five settlements and two national parks.
During October and November 2015 two of the agency’s Be-200ChS aircraft were also deployed to Sumatra, dropping over 6,000 tonnes of water on rampant wildfires and helping protect the homes of over 1,500 Indonesians.
This deployment however wasn’t the first time a Be-200 aircraft was deployed to Indonesia, as in early 2015 it was employed to help locate and retrieve the wreckage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, an Airbus320-216 which crashed into the Java Sea on December 28, 2014.
But EMERCOM doesn’t deal with natural disasters alone – it also provides assistance to nations and territories with volatile political and/or humanitarian situations.
On April 12, 2015 a pair of Russian planes evacuated about 300 people from war-torn Yemen, while other aircraft delivered humanitarian aid to the country in April and in November 2015.
The agency also continues to deliver aid to the most volatile conflict zones in the world, including to Syria.
Since 1993 the Russian Ministry of Emergencies has conducted about 400 humanitarian operations, and since the beginning of 2015 its workers delivered over 90,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to 18 countries.
