Survivors of collapsed buildings receive urgent assistance

CAIRO - 13 December 2017: Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly directed the ministry to provide the necessary assistance to the survivors of the collapsed buildings in Rawd El-Farag, as a quick response, on Tuesday.

"A relief committee was immediately set up to follow up on the efforts to evacuate the survivors and extract the injured; 41 survivors are now being housed," Waly confirmed in a statement.

Also, several NGOS in cooperation with Cairo Directorate will provide meals to the survivors, in addition to a LE 100 compensation for each survivor.

The social solidarity foundation provided 41 blankets and 30 mattresses which were delivered to the affected families to cope with the winter cold.

The collapsed buildings resulted in two deaths and four injuries. As a five storey building first collapsed, incurring the total collapse of a three storey building, and the partial collapse of another three storey building.

The two dead people are a 45-year-old woman, and a five-year-old child.
Illegal and old buildings that must be demolished, and whose residents refuse to leave, are common in Egypt.

The latest incident was in May, when a 12-storey building in Al-Azarita, an Alexandrian neighborhood, leaned over another building due to structural damage. Nineteen families were evacuated from both buildings and no injuries or deaths have been reported.