Saudi prince to help in flood efforts – Hishammuddin

Saudi Arabian cabinet minister Prince Turki bin Mohammad bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz has offered to assist Malaysia by providing contribution and assistance to Malaysians affected by the floods, defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein said today.

“This morning, I was contacted by Prince Turki who stated his intention to assist our efforts by providing aid and contribution to Malaysians who were affected by floods via the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hishammuddin said his ministry, through the Malaysian armed forces (ATM) was now focusing on post-flood assistance and preparations to face the possibility of a second wave of floods.

A total of 998 ATM personnel and officers comprising the army, navy and air force were mobilised with 96 assets of various types including trucks, combat boats, outboard motors (OBM) and EC725 helicopters to flood-affected states including Selangor, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan and Melaka as of yesterday, he said.

He said ATM had successfully evacuated 32,661 flood victims to temporary relief centres (PPS) as of yesterday with the cooperation of the police, fire and rescue department, health ministry as well as all related agencies via Op Murni.

“ATM will continue to step up the implementation of post-flood cleaning including the prevention of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“This is in line with the statement of defence forces chief Gen Tan Sri Affendi Buang yesterday that MAF would be increasing personnel to 500 especially for cleaning work,” he said.

Hishammuddin said one ATM battalion is being placed on alert in each state to be deployed to the locations affected by floods whenever the need arises.

He said an emergency purchase of 55 OBM units had been approved by the finance ministry following reports that ATM boats were being used non-stop in flood-hit areas, he said.

On the setting up of a task force on floods, he said his ministry and the armed forces would give full cooperation to the team. FMT

Saudi prince to help in flood efforts – Hishammuddin

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