Volunteers taking part in a fire drill on the Nautical Aliya. — Bernama photo
ABOARD NAUTICAL ALIYA IN THE ANDAMAN SEA: The uncertain weather conditions over the Andaman Sea may delay the arrival of vessel ‘Nautical Aliya’ in Yangon, Myanmar.
‘Food Flotilla For Myanmar’ mission leader Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim said the vessel, carrying the humanitarian mission volunteers, was scheduled to arrive on Feb 9 at 10.30am instead of Feb 8.
He said the vessel was now travelling at seven knots or 13 kilometres per hour, subject to the sea conditions.
“Our journey has been smooth so far and we’re now sailing across the Andaman Sea. Indeed, we’re experiencing various obstacles such as weather and the vessel is sailing against the sea current,” he told reporters onboard the vessel here yesterday.
Asked on preparations to offload donation items in Yangon, Azeez said the volunteers were now in the midst of separating the goods to facilitate the offloading process.
He said about 500 tonnes of the items, including rice and 10,000 hygiene kits would be handed over in Yangon.
“We only have 10 hours in Yangon and we are expected to take three hours to distribute these items,” he said.
The vessel, ferrying 2,300 tonnes of food, medicine, items of daily needs, clothes and blankets is expected to sail for 18 days across the Andaman Sea for Yangon and refugee camps in Bangladesh.
The mission, which enters its fourth day, is organised by 1Malaysia Putra Club and the Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organisation, with the cooperation of Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi Foundation from Turkey.
It is participated by 195 volunteers from 13 nations involving medical teams, teaching manpower, local and international media practitioners as well as local and foreign non-governmental organisations. — Bernama