Jordanians injured in Christchurch attack see ‘remarkable improvement’

AMMAN — The conditions of Jordanians injured in Friday’s terror attack in New Zealand witnessed “remarkable improvement”, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Reports received by Ambassador Ahid Sweidat, the head of a diplomatic team dispatched by the Foreign Ministry to New Zealand to follow up on the victims of the massacre in two mosques in Christchurch, indicated that one of the five injured Jordanians who was in critical condition a day earlier has woken up from a coma and was taken off artificial respirators and is breathing normally, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sufian Qudah said in a statement.

Qudah, who is also the operations centre director at the ministry, explained that the doctors in charge of the second case that was listed in critical condition were optimistic after performing a critical surgery for the third time, adding that the three other injured Jordanians have started to reach complete recovery.

The diplomatic team continued to meet with the families of the victims and follow up on the conditions of the wounded on Tuesday, as per its mandate to offer support and assistance to the families and victims of the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of four Jordanian citizens, according to the statement. 

Qudah noted that the team continued its meetings with the members of the Jordanian community in New Zealand and visited the injured to check on their condition and meet their needs.

He also noted that a senior New Zealand police official contacted Sweidat to express her condolences over the loss of life from the terrorist incident, which she described as “terrible and unorthodox to the culture of the tolerant and peaceful people of New Zealand”.

The police official stressed that New Zealand’s authorities are providing all the possible medical assistance for the injured Jordanians, according to the statement.

For his part, Sweidat commended the facilitations offered by New Zealand’s authorities to the families of the victims and the wounded and informed the police official of families’ will of holding a mass funeral for all the Jordanian victims of the terrorist incident and burying them at the same site. 

The official promised to release the bodies of the deceased to their families as soon as possible, welcoming the families’ plan, according to the statement.

Qudah stressed that the diplomatic team has completed visa issuance procedures for applications received by the ministry for members of bereaved families who wish to travel to New Zealand and see their relatives, noting that a total of 14 visas were processed and issued through the ministry, the statement added.