WFP Launches Helicopter Relief Operation To Feed More Pakistan Flood Victims

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has today
launched a major airlift, using helicopters to boost its ongoing relief
operation and bring desperately needed food to people cut off by the
devastating floods in northern Pakistan.



The Pakistan government has offered WFP the use of six helicopters to
transport food to tens of thousands of hungry and desperate people in
isolated communities across the Swat Valley.



A WFP team has been in the Swat Valley identifying safe locations for the
helicopters to land. WFP and its international and national NGO partners
will carry out distributions of ready-to-eat foods for infants and young
children, high energy biscuits and wheat flour, to WFP-identified
beneficiaries.



The first three missions to the town of Kalam took place on Thursday
morning, carrying a total of 7 metric tons of food - sufficient to feed
2,500 people for one week.



"In this scene of devastation, with roads cut and bridges washed away,
these helicopters are literally life-savers as they are the only way to get
vital food supplies to many thousands of hungry and desperate people," said
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.



WFP began food distributions on Sunday in the worst-affected areas of
Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera and by Wednesday evening had
provided rations for nearly 155,000 people.



WFP is currently conducting food needs assessments in five of the
worst-hit areas, and will move into additional areas as they become
accessible. First indications are that around 1.8 million people across the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province are in need of food assistance.



WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.
Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than
70 countries.



Source:

WFP