A team of five Chinese doctors has been sent to Tanzania's northwest Kagera region to help save the lives of survivors of the Saturday earthquake which killed 17 people and injured scores of others, said a statement from the Chinese embassy in Dar es Salaam.

Pending government approval, a group of 35 doctors and nurses based in Shanghai will soon become the nation’s first medical team to join the World Health Organization’s emergency response system, specializing in disaster relief. [...] Beijing has since maintained its medical assistance to Africa ever since, renewing its commitment last year to send 1,500 medical professionals to the continent.

As one of quake-stricken Nepal’s closest neighbours—sharing a common frontier with road and air connectivity, open borders that do not require visas, besides cultural, language and other commonalities between the two, India was perhaps the best placed to offer succour to Nepal.

But Cyclone Pam is more than just a natural disaster. It is a demonstrable effect of worldwide climate change, which scientists and development experts have long warned will hit Pacific Island states the hardest.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Saturday Japan will offer $4 billion in aid for global efforts to improve disaster management over the four years through 2018, including support for building infrastructure in developing countries.

The Tsunami Evaluation Committee, consisting of UN agencies and other NGOs, described the aid commitments as the most generous and immediately funded humanitarian response in history.

Hospitals of Hope follows other operations in which Israel has sent aid to disaster-struck regions. In the present case, as in the past, Israel is calling upon its vast experience in the area of field medicine to aid another country in need.

Providing medical care in foreign countries is a great way to improve the U.S. image abroad. The U.S. Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort are prime examples of an effective soft power program. These hospital ships provide medical care to impoverished communities worldwide. The USNS Mercy is itself one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States.