MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine White Helmets arrive in Honduras

Some areas in Tegucigalpa should never have been used for human settlements

An Argentine “white helmet” mission to assist Honduran victims of recent rainstorms has been deployed to the area, it was reported Sunday in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine Agency for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance-White Helmets (Aciah) had pledged this assistance after Honduran President Xiomara Castro declared a 90-day national emergency on September 24 due to the rains, which have left at least 15 dead and more than 80,000 people affected.

“The local authorities emphasized that the Argentine mission is the first delegation to arrive in Honduras to contribute with specialized technical assistance for humanitarian aid in the territory,” Argentina's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

From a logistics center Argentina has in Panama with pre-positioned supplies to respond to disasters, 11,200,000 liters of water purification tablets have been sent to assist 24,000 people for 90 days. Also, 220 hygiene kits were sent to 1,100 people in the emergency areas.

The Argentine team plans to visit the areas most affected by the storms that continue to hit Honduras and will go to different shelters for the thousands of evacuees.

The government of Argentina had offered humanitarian assistance to Honduras after a chain of landslides in a part of Tegucigalpa, where an old geological fault was activated as a result of heavy rains affecting the country.

“There are at least nine shelters located in the Central District to receive those who have been left homeless, a situation in which the White Helmets has a vast experience both logistically and in psychological containment,” the Foreign Ministry had said in a previous statement.

The construction of “UNHCR houses,” is also among the possibilities, it was reported.

Heavy rains in Honduras have forced civil protection agencies to set up shelters for the population. Thousands of people have been evacuated in Tegucigalpa, many of them to shelters while others have gone to live with relatives or friends, it was reported.

The landslides have destroyed more than a hundred houses in at least three neighborhoods known as the Guillén, Nueva Santa Rosa, and Cerrito Blanco, in northwest Tegucigalpa, which is crisscrossed by geological faults, some of the most dangerous in areas that should never have been used for human settlements.

Argentine President Alberto Fernández holds the pro tempore presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).