UK to send ship to help Philippines

The UK will send a Royal Navy warship to help deal with the storm disaster in the Philippines, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

UK to send ship to help Philippines, David Cameron announces

The UK will send a Royal Navy warship to help deal with the storm disaster in the Philippines, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

He said HMS Daring would travel “at full speed” from Singapore and an RAF C-17 transporter plane will be sent.

Mr Cameron, addressing business leaders in the City of London, added that UK aid following Typhoon Haiyan would be increased from £6m to £10m.

Up to 10,000 people are feared to have been killed.

Meanwhile, millions of survivors of the typhoon, which struck the Philippines on Friday, are waiting for aid with food shortages increasing.

A huge international relief effort is under way but rescue workers have struggled to reach areas cut off since the storm.

‘Powerful help’

During his speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, in which he outlined the coalition’s foreign policy commitments, Mr Cameron said: “We continue to help around the world – as we are today in the Philippines, where Typhoon Haiyan has wrought such appalling devastation.

“Britain is contributing £10m and HMS Daring, currently deployed near Singapore, will shortly be heading at full speed towards the disaster zone with further support from an RAF C-17 which will be a powerful help to the relief operation.”

The additional support announced by the prime minister will provide aid flights to Cebu in the eastern Philippines, the delivery of temporary shelters, blankets and water purification tablets to 300,000 people, and household goods for water treatment and storage.

The Department for International Development has pledged urgent humanitarian support for as many as 500,000 people affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: “The scenes of utter devastation in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan are shocking in their scale and we know that the survivors, especially vulnerable children and women, now face a grim and uncertain future.”

Several charities, including Save the Children, Oxfam, Care International UK and the British Red Cross, have also launched appeals.

Launched in 2006, HMS Daring was the first of the Navy’s six £1bn Type 45 destroyers.

It has a Lynx helicopter on board and has equipment to make drinking water from seawater.

Source: BBC.