The South African Gift of the Givers team which headed to Indonesia in a bid to assist the earthquake-torn nation is still in the country‚ despite being halted from conducting search and rescue efforts.
Founder of the aid organisation Imtiaz Sooliman on Wednesday told TimesLIVE that all rescue teams‚ both local and international‚ had been barred from searching for any more potential survivors in the rubble.
“We were stopped from doing any search and rescue efforts and we were told that the directive came from the military‚” said Sooliman.
“So from Tuesday‚ we started doing other things. We are putting up tents for clinics and helping wherever we can‚” he said.
It was not immediately clear why the military had halted the rescue operations.
Sooliman said his team would be returning to South Africa on Friday.
His team comprised of 27 people – five media personnel and 17 medics and search and rescue team members.