ROME – The humanitarian air service run by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is struggling to keep its planes flying in parts of Africa due to a dramatic shortage of funds. The flights carry aid workers to remote locations where they provide vital assistance for hundreds of thousands of people – many of whom have been driven from their homes by conflict.
The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), which is operated by WFP, carries aid workers to emergency operations where they provide support and assistance to populations affected by war and natural disasters. But the UNHAS air service to Chad will run out of funds by 15 August, while the UNHAS service in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will run out of funds by 30 August.
"We fly thousands of aid workers to dangerous and remote locations all over the world. How will they reach people if they have no planes? How will WFP reach the hungry? How will doctors reach their patients? How will people have clean water if the engineers who help to build wells can't get there," asked Pierre Carrasse, Chief of WFP's Aviation Branch.
In Chad, a monthly average of 4,000 humanitarian passengers fly on six UNHAS aircraft to reach 10 destinations, where they provide assistance to 250,000 Darfurian refugees and 180,000 internally displaced people in the East of the country.
The Chad service needs $6.7 million to keep flying to the end of the year. If no new funds arrive by 15 August, UNHAS will be forced to start cutting back the number of aircraft and flights, and could eventually face closure. The West Africa Service, comprising Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, needs just $3.3 million to keep flying to the end of the year.
In February, UNHAS was forced to close its service in Ivory Coast due to lack of funds. The same month, the service to Niger was also cut, but thanks to a recent donation from the UN Common Emergency Relief Fund, the Niger service may resume in August.
UNHAS operates in Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, West Africa and Afghanistan, with a 2009 budget of US$160 million. So far this year, the service has received less than $40 million in contributions. It expects to raise a further $50 million in fees to be paid by the organizations that use it.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency and the UN's frontline agency for hunger solutions. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries.
WFP now provides RSS feeds to help journalists keep up with the latest press releases, videos and photos as they are published on WFP.org. For more details see: http://www.wfp.org/english/?n=999.
WFP now has a dedicated ISDN line in Italy for quality two-way interviews with WFP officials.
For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Gregory Barrow, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39 06513 2330, Cell. +39 348 1325018
Emilia Casella, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178564, Cell. +41-792857304
Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Cell. +1-202-4223383
