WFP Warns of Humanitarian Crisis Due to Lack of Funds

The United Nations warned Friday that its humanitarian logistics flights could be largely grounded in July due to a lack of funds — severely compromising global aid operations.

“Unless a substantial injection of funds is provided by donors by the end of the first week of July, WFP will have no choice but to ground most of its humanitarian air fleet by the end of July,” WFP spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters. “All the people who need our assistance will suffer.”

As the coronavirus crisis continues around the world, the network is operating on an unprecedented scale.

Though regular commercial passenger and cargo flights are slowly resuming and it is possible to use some of their spare capacity for transporting aid, Byrs said that there were no commercial flights going to some of the impoverished destinations that UN aid needed to reach.
The World Food Programme (WFP), which runs the flight network, said that only $178 million (€159 million) of the $965 million common services budget needed to operate the service throughout 2020 had so far been advanced or confirmed by donors.