Aid flights threatened by lack of cash

UN World Food Programme (WFP) flights, which bring aid to half a million hungry Angolans and ferry more than a thousand humanitarian workers to remote areas monthly, could soon disappear unless the UN agency receives more funding. "If we don't get any funds, in two weeks from now we will have to begin cutting back services," WFP's Country Director Rick Corsino told IRIN. WFP urgently needs $500,000 to keep flights up and running for the next three months, and is asking for a further $1.5 million to fund the service until the end of 2006. Corsino said WFP would continue to provide food to the most vulnerable, chiefly returning refugees, but that a scaled back flight service would make the food aid operation "more difficult, more costly and more time-consuming". More of a concern was the effect of the cuts on the 200 humanitarian agencies and 1,200 aid workers, who rely on the flights to provide assistance in provinces largely inaccessible by road such as Zaire, Uige, Moxico, Kuando Kubango and Huila. "There are so many trickle-down effects of this. NGOs would have to find other ways to get in an out which, in some cases, isn't possible, or close their operations," Corsino said. The UN refugee agency, UNCHR, which plans to continue with a host of returnee reintegration activities when its repatriation programme comes to an end later this year, said it was extremely anxious about the threat of a halt in flights. "It is really worrisome because there are some places where only WFP flies," said Maria Benevides, UNHCR spokeswoman. "For our operations this is really a concern. How are we going to get people in and out and monitor progress?" Angola's 27-year civil war, which destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, including its health and education structures, ended in April 2002. Despite peace and substantial oil wealth, most of the country's 13 million people live in abject poverty. Corsino said WFP had appealed to donors for funding back in September and had already been forced to prune its flight schedule for 2006. But as yet no money had been forthcoming. In general, Angola is slipping down the list of donor priorities. Slowly getting back on its feet in peacetime, and with substantial wealth of its own, they argue that there are more urgent cases of emergency elsewhere in Africa and the world.