Location: AccraWFP has launched its first emergency airlift from a new logistics hub in the Ghanaian capital, sending urgently needed relief supplies – 26 tons of High Energy Biscuits and three mobile storage tents – to N’Djamena in Chad.
The emergency supplies are being taken overland to Abeche, Eastern Chad, where WFP is providing support to over 220,000 refugees from Sudan’s neighbouring Darfur region as well as some 57,000 Chadians who have been displaced by conflict in the border area.
The UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) opened in Accra on 5 December 2006, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between WFP and the Government of Ghana.
New depots
It is one of a network of five planned hubs around the world – Brindisi (Italy) and Dubai have already opened; depots in Panama and at the Subang Military Airport in Malaysia will be inaugurated in early 2007.
The network is designed to enable WFP to respond to four major crises anywhere in the world at any one time, delivering emergency relief supplies within 48 hours of needs being declared.
“This first airlift from Accra to N’Djamena shows that Ghana is strategically well placed for a UNHRD with a positive impact on the West Africa region and an opportunity of drastically reducing both costs and response time in an emergency,” said Amer Daoudi, Associate Director of the Operations and Transport Division at WFP Headquarters in Rome.
Vital supplies
The depot, conveniently sited within the perimeter of Accra’s Kotoka International Airport, stocks vital stand-by supplies such as high-energy biscuits and rapid response equipment.
In future, the UNHRD will store drugs and medical equipment, sanitation and hygiene systems, radio and telecommunications equipment as well as drinking water.
The immediate costs of the Accra hub are covered by a donation of some US$500,000 per annum from Irish Aid.
Contact us
Brenda
Barton
Deputy Director
Communications
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39-06-65132602
Cell. +39-3472582217
(ISDN line available)brenda.barton@wfp.org
Gregory Barrow
WFP/London
Tel. +44-20-72409001
Cell. +44-7968-008474
gregory.barrow@wfp.org
Christiane Berthiaume
WFP/Geneva
Tel. +41-22-9178564
Cell. +41-792857304
christiane.berthiaume
@wfp.org
Cécile Sportis
WFP/Paris
Tel. +33-1-70385330
Cell. +33-6161-68266
cecile.sportis@wfp.org
Jennifer Parmelee
WFP/Washington
Tel. +1-202-6530010
ext. 1149
Mob. +1-202-4223383
@wfp.org
Bettina Luescher
WFP/New York
Tel. +1-212-9635196
Cell. +1-646-8241112
luescher@un.org
