- U.N. food agency has cut flights to Darfur due to lack of funding for Humanitarian Air Service (HAS).
World Food Program (WFP) announced on Tuesday that flights which are currently ferrying over 14 000 aid workers to travel to Darfur and other remote parts of Sudan will be reduced with immediate effect.
WFP which has been struggling since beginning of the year to meet its funding goals, urgently needs US $20 million injection by 15 June to restore full air services for the coming months.
The decision to cut aid flights would undermine agencies work in remote and hostile corners of the country where communities are struggling to cope with more than two decades of civil war, especially war torn Darfur and south Sudan, where a number of WFP trucks have been hijacked.
WFP said it had already cut one of its helicopters and would stop using two aircrafts from June 19, with the price of helicopter flights set to rise from US $ 40 to US $100 from 1 July.
Mr Kenro Oshidari, WFP's representative in Sudan said since March, Sudan has been facing possible closure of humanitarian air service due to lack of funds. "Measures announced today are aimed to keep vital services going for longer, while we wait for new funding to be confirmed," said WFP official.
Mr Oshidari added cuts would also reduce ability to respond to urgent medical evacuation requests and staff relocations because of insecurity. Last year only, WFP-HAS carried out 267 security and medical evacuations.
Mr Alun McDonald, spokesman for the charity Oxfam in Sudan said a cut would bear bitter fruits for the troubled country, saying aid flights are used daily in the country. "The big worry is that this could be the first step and we could see further cuts that would be disastrous," he said.
He said Oxfam rely on U.N. air service to reach some parts of Darfur because a surge of bandit attacks had made it too dangerous to travel by road. The looming rainy season would make traveling by land even harder, he added.
About 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since 2003 in continuing merciless violence in Darfur.
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