Israel on Tuesday announced it was sending a medical team to Equatorial Guinea, following deadly blasts at a military camp in the African country.
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The death toll from the series of explosions rose by dozens to at least 98 killed after more bodies were recovered, the government said Tuesday.
The joint Health Ministry-IDF delegation will include intensive care physicians, pediatricians, and other medical specialists, according to a Health Ministry statement.
The ministry said the National Security Council requested the delegation be sent to Equatorial Guinea.
The Israeli announcement came after Spain, Equatorial Guinea's former colonial power, said an aid plane will leave Madrid on Wednesday with drugs and medical equipment. The United States embassy also said Washington is sending experts to help with damage assessment and reconstruction.
The blasts on Sunday in the Mondong Nkuantoma neighborhood of the coastal city of Bata also wounded at least 615 people, authorities said. The government said that 316 of the injured have been discharged and 299 remain in care in various hospitals in the city.
More than 60 people were also rescued from under the rubble by the civil protection corps and fire service, the government said.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the government will hold an emergency meeting to look into how victims can quickly receive aid from Equatorial Guinea before international aid arrives.
Investigations into the blast have begun, he said in a Tuesday statement.
The president initially the explosion was due to the "negligent handling of dynamite" in the military barracks and the impact damaged almost all the homes and buildings in Bata.
Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich West African country of 1.3 million people located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. Bata has roughly 175,000 inhabitants.
On February 19, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Equatorial Guinea had decided to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
It would become the third country to move its embassy to the city, after the United States and Guatemala. Kosovo and Malawi have also announced plans to open embassies in Jerusalem.
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