WFP sends first aid plane to Darfur, boosts total number of flights

ROME, Aug 4 (AFP) — The first of 16 UN World Food Program flights carrying aid to several points in the famished, war-torn Darfur region of Sudan took off Wednesday from Brindisi in southern Italy, a spokesman said.

The flights, initially set at 12, were also boosted to 16 “and we have not ruled out adding more,” said Marta Laurienzo, an official at the UN humanitarian intervention base located at the Pierozzi military airport in Brindisi.

The first plane, initially planned for Tuesday, took off for Geineina in Darfur and “a second was to leave an hour later”, she said.

The aircraft will be carrying two million dollars worth of pre-fabricated offices, generators, water purification equipment and chemical toilets to help aid workers on the scene set up shop.

The United Nations describes the humanitarian crisis in Darfur as currently the world’s worst, with up to 50,000 people dead and more than a million driven from their villages in the fighting between government-backed militias and rebels.

Laurienzo said the WFP had under an earlier program sent 11 flights with food aid, notably high-energy biscuits.