UPDATED: DART en-route to Nepal With 200 CAF members

Late last night, an assessment team and elements of the CAF's Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) departed  8 Wing Trenton for Kathmandu, Nepal. The deployment is part of the Canadian Governments international support for Nepal following the devastating earth quake last week and sizeable after shocks that have continued to affect the region.

The C-17 trasnport left 8 Wing Trenton last night, and according to Maj.Gen. Dean Milner, the troops deployed as part of the DART unit are trained in urban search and rescue and medical personnel.

Travelling with the DART unit is a smaller group of soldiers and civilians, who will assess how Canada can effectively aid Nepal in the short, medium, and long term. The DART unit was last deployed in 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The Unit is designed to be deployed for up to 40 days until local and international humanitarian aid resources can be put in place.

Ottawa announced late Sunday that it has committed $5 million in initial relief aid.

UPDATE: April 28 2015

Ottawa announced today that 200 additional members of the CAF have been placed on standby, and will deploy to Nepal to help with the disaster relief. They will join the 40 members ( including the 18 members of the DART) who are already on the group in the coming days.