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GENEVA - Nations around the world sent squads of rescuers and relief supplies to the Sumatra earthquake zone Friday but the United Nations said it needed an official request from Indonesia to release thousands of tonnes of food already in the country.
With more than 1,100 people dead in Sumatra and ill-equipped rescuers struggling in rubble to find survivors and bodies, the Red Cross said many villages in the worst hit zone around the city of Padang had been completely wiped out.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari appealed for international help in the rescue operation after the 7.6-magnitude quake on Wednesday and powerful aftershocks.
A Swiss team of about 120 rescue workers was in the zone by Friday with sniffer dogs to search through collapsed buildings.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta said it had sent an emergency team to Padang to inspect the damage. A 36-person search and rescue team and about 20 military medics and engineers were also en-route from Australia, which has provided 350,000 Australian dollars (305,000 US) to help its neighbour's relief efforts.
The Russian government also sent a plane with 35 doctors, dog handlers, psychologists and first aid supplies to Sumatra, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
A second plane with a mobile hospital and more doctors was being prepared.
Twenty Estonian surgeons, nurses, anaesthetists and logistics experts left for Indonesia, Mart Haljaste, head of the rescue team told the Baltic News Service.
The Italian government said it would also send a plane with humanitarian supplies to the region.
Among other major donors: the European Union pledged three million euros (4.3 million dollars), Germany three million dollars, search-and-rescue resources and water purification plants, and Britain promised firefighters and rescue workers.
China offered 500,000 dollars, while Japan dispatched 60 rescue workers and 23 medics.
The United States pledged more than 3.3 million dollars in aid and President Barack Obama said he was "deeply moved" by the disaster in the country where he spent part of his childhood.
Singapore pledged 50,000 dollars of emergency supplies and sent 42 personnel. Norway pledged 2.4 million euros (3.5 million dollars) and a Turkish Red Crescent team was in the quake area assessing needs, Turkey's foreign ministry said.
People in Need, a Czech foundation, said it had released about 20,000 euros from emergency funds and was arranging a public collection.
But the main UN food agency said it was waiting for an official Indonesian request to release food already in warehouses in Indonesia.
"At the moment we haven't received the official request from the government of Indonesia to assist but we are ready to assist and expect that that would come very shortly in an official manner," said Emilia Casella, spokeswoman in Geneva for the World Food Programme.
The WFP has 3,000 tonnes of food including 1,000 tonnes of high energy biscuits in warehouses throughout Indonesia which could be used, the spokeswoman said.
The WFP is already sending heavy lifting equipment from Bandar Aceh to Padang to help with excavation efforts.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it expected relief items -- jerry cans, hygiene kits, tents and water pumps -- for 50,000 families to arrive in the quake zone by Saturday.
"From the aerial assessments carried out yesterday, the feedback is, yes Padang city and environs are bad, but once you go outside into the surrounding
rural areas, the situation is very seriously grave," said Christine South of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society.
"There was talk of complete devastation of some villages, 100 percent devastation, and 50 percent in others, obviously huge damage to infrastructure," South, the federation's operations coordinator for Indonesia, told journalists.
- AFP /ls
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