Swiss government fully funds WFP airlift

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) on Tuesday received a US $378,350 contribution from the government of Switzerland that will fully fund an emergency airlift delivering food aid to thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) southeastern province of Katanga, WFP reported from Kinshasa.

The airlift will enable the agency to deliver a total of 500 mt of urgently needed maize, beans, vegetable oil, corn-soya blend, salt and sugar providing inhabitants of Nyunzu, Manono, Kabalo, Kongolo, Kiambi and Mulongo with enough food until December.

"This donation comes at a crucial time," Jose Pita-Gros, WFP Deputy Country Director in the DRC, said. "On behalf of the hungry people of the DRC, we express our deepest appreciation. It will give us the chance to reach tens of thousands of people who rely on WFP food aid for their survival."

WFP has delivered almost 300 mt of the food needed since the airlift began earlier this month. The remaining food will be delivered in the coming weeks. This is WFP’s second airlift operation to Katanga province in 2001; the first ran from June to July.

WFP expressed particular concern for the towns of Kiambi and Mulongo, as accessibility remains difficult even by air. In Kiambi, malnutrition rates are among the most dramatic in the DRC at 32 percent, and 11 children out of 10,000 under five years are dying each day. To date, only a limited amount of food has been delivered by air as the airstrip is overgrown with trees and bushes, making it impossible for WFP aircraft to land. As an emergency measure, a smaller plane has been shuttling to and from Kalemie, but it is only able to carry one metric tonne of food per flight. Similarily, Mulongo’s dilapidated airstrip, unused for 20 years, has remained inaccessible. To overcome these logistical obstacles, WFP will airlift food aid to Manono, from where NGO Nuova Frontiera will use small trucks to reach Kiambi and Mulongo by way of very poor roads.

To date, WFP has received 40 percent of its $112 million appeal to feed 1.4 million people in the DRC. Last year, the agency fed some 930,000 people in the country and now operates out of 10 offices and five logistics bases.