ships which do not carry a medical doctor shall be required to have either at least one seafarer on board who is in charge of medical care and administering medicine as part of their regular duties or at least one seafarer on board competent to provide medical first aid; persons in charge of medical care on board who are not medical doctors shall have satisfactorily completed training in medical care that meets the requirements of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978, as amended (STCW); seafarers designated to provide medical first aid shall have satisfactorily comple ...[+++]ted training in medical first aid that meets the requirements of STCW; national laws or regulations shall specify the level of approved training required taking into account, inter alia, such factors as the duration, nature and conditions of the voyage and the number of seafarers on board; and

In an operation organized by Médecins Sans Frontières (Belgium) and targeting some 5 000 people, a planeload of medical supplies worth ECU 150 000 has already been dispatched to Luanda, via Lisbon and Brazzaville.

It includes the provision of urgent assistance such as shelter, emergency feeding and medical treatment, and may in certain cases include short-term rehabilitation (in accordance with existing decision-making procedures), both to ensure the delivery of that urgent assistance and to begin to help restore such communities to an adequate level of self-sufficiency".

The aid will be distributed by the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and will cover the provision of blankets, food parcels, medical supplies and medical assistance to all those who need it.

The aid has been granted under Article 254 of the fourth Lomé Convention. On 9 April the Commission responded to this new crisis in Rwanda by allocating ECU 500 000 to MSF (Belgium) for the immediate sending of medical aid to Kigali to treat the victims of the fighting.