//REPEATING// KENYA: U.S. Military Joins WFP Effort To Airdrop Food

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Mar 2 1998 (IPS) - United States military planes have joined efforts coordinated by the World Food Programme (WFP) to airdrop food to hundreds of thousands of people cut off by heavy rains and floods in Kenya.

The planes, two C-130 Hercules, are supplementing the WFP’s existing air transport fleet, which comprises a C-130 Hercules, a Buffalo aircraft, and one helicopter.

WFP has spearheaded relief efforts to assist some 390,000 flood victims in the seven worst hit areas in northeastern Kenya and the 125,000 refugees in the Dadaab camps. The agency had warned that unless donors provided new funding, it would have to halt flood relief air operations in Kenya.

WFP said it needed 2.2 million U.S. dollars for both the Kenyan flood victims, and Somali and Sudanese refugees at the Dadaab camps.

Rikki Malik-Lali, the WFP’s Refugee Feeding Programme Advisor, had warned last month that food rations would be cut by half, if urgent funding for the Dadaad airbridge was not received immediately.

The United States responded and its two aircrafts, which were based in Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, began airdropping the food on Feb 26.

WFP has welcomed the U.S. contribution of planes which airdropped 16 tonnes of maize to El-Wak in northeastern Kenya, followed by a second airlift of another 16 tonnes of food to Wajir late last week.

“This 32 tonnes of food is enough to give 4,600 people a half ration for one month. The two aircraft will be based in Mombasa and will make daily flights into areas in northeastern Kenya as well as the Dadaab refugee camps,” said Russ Ulrey, WFP Regional Logistics Officer.

“With this increase in air power, WFP can continue its operation to move large quantities of food to the most vulnerable people,” he said. “Thousands of families are still stranded by the floods and are totally dependent upon food aid.”

The planes, plus four boats, are being funded by the European Union (EC) relief arm ECHO, the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, according to the WFP. The ECHO donation also includes a contribution of 3,000 tonnes of maize.

According to the WFP, the U.S. contribution of aircraft is in addition to a donation of 2,300 tonnes of cereals to WFP’s Kenya flood emergency operation. This will assist a total of 515,000 people still cut off by floods in remote areas of Kenya, it says.

Prior to the newly-donated U.S. planes, WFP had said that the reduction of food came at a time when the refugees were particularly weak and already suffering from a rise in malaria as a result of the constant rains and flood conditions in the camps caused by the El Nino phenomenon.

At the time, WFP said it used to provide monthly nearly 1,800 tonnes of food to the 125,000 Somali and Sudanese refugees in the three Dadaad camps — Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. Refugees receive almost 1,900 calories in their daily 510 gram ration made up of maize, wheatflour, beans, lentils, oil and salt.

“This provides the bare minimum in nutritional value. If it is halved we will see a rapid increase in malnutrition which could ultimately lead to starvation and further outbreak of disease,” said Malik-Lali.

WFP says it has been forced to airlift all food to the camps since December when unexpected and continous heavy rains rendered the main Garissa-Dadaad road impassable.

“We have ample food stocks in Mombasa and Garissa, but currently we simply cannot deliver the food by road. We are left with no other choice, but to cut refugee rations by half for the first part of the March distribution cycle,” Malik-Lali had indicated before the United States aircrafts stepped in.

Further compounding the need for continued airlifts to the flood victims are fears that rains due to arrive at the beginning of April when the normal rainy season starts, could create further havoc on the already-destroyed road infrastructure in northeastern Kenya, on the border with Somalia.

WFP says it is taking advantage of the drier weather in the weeks ahead to restore deliveries of food to people in the flood stricken north. It says it is also working with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Kenyan Ministry of Public Works and interested donors to initiate emergency road repairs before the onset of the long rain.