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CAFRICA-UN-CONFLICT-AID
Funding crisis threatens UN air drops in C.Africa: WFP
LIBREVILLE, Dec 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – UN humanitarian air operations in
Central African Republic risk being grounded next month if the service can’t
raise an immediate $3 million in funding, the World Food Programme warned on
Tuesday.
The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) allows aid workers to
deliver vital humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of people in some of
the most inaccessible areas of this war-torn country.
But a shortage of funding has put the service at risk of shutting down, a
UNHAS statement said.
“UNHAS, which depends entirely on the support of international donors to
finance its operating costs, is in urgent need of $3 million (2.6 million
euros) to maintain its service for the next three months and will be grounded
after January if there is no immediate injection of funds.”
The country has suffered bloody sectarian violence that has left thousands
dead and forced more than a quarter of its population of 4.5 million people
to flee their homes, UN figures show.
“CAR has been mired in conflict for years with regular spikes. Roads
become impassable and whole parts of the country are often completely cut off
from the capital Bangui leaving UNHAS as the main means of transport to
access hard-to-reach locations,” said spokesman Herve Verhoosel.
Of those forced to flee, 700,000 are internally displaced while another
570,000 have fled abroad, with 2.9 million people in need of humanitarian
assistance.
“In the month of November alone, following clashes in the central, north-
west, east and south-east regions of the country, UNHAS provided transport
for over 2,000 aid workers — a record for a single month since it started
operations in CAR in 2006,” he said.
Between January to November, the WFP provided food assistance to more than
1.2 million people, with the UN agency warning losing the air operations
would harm an “essential” part of its humanitarian operations.
“The need for UNHAS is as great as it has ever been, and it would be a
real tragedy for aid operations if it were to close down,” said Giancarlo
Cirri, the WFP’s country director for CAR.
BSS/AFP/RY/1808 hrs