UN seeks urgent funding for pandemic aid transport

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations food agency warned Thursday that without immediate funding its global transport system will stop delivering thousands of tons of masks, gloves and other critical equipment to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic to 132 countries by the third week of July.

Amer Daoudi, the World Food Program’s director of operations and COVID-19 response, told a video press conference that its aircraft have also transported 2,600 humanitarian and health workers free of charge to 40 destinations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East since the pandemic began, and that service will also come to a halt.

“As the virus continues to accelerate across many parts of the world, as we are seeing, these services become more and more vital and important,” he said.

To meet the demand, he said the Rome-based WFP requested $965 million to sustain its transport services through 2020.

But so far it has received about $132 million — only 14 percent — even though “the COVID-19 virus is not slowing down” and “the entire humanitarian and health community is relying on WFP’s logistic services now more than ever,” Daoudi said.

“WFP services are expanding and demand is increasing. However, the funding is not,” he said. “With this funding level, the WFP common services will come to a standstill by the third week of July.”

Daoudi said WFP has eight COVID-19 response hubs around the world connected by a global network of air and sea transport that so far have dispatched 15,000 cubic meters (about 530,000 cubic feet) of critical items to tackle the coronavirus to 132 countries on behalf of health and humanitarian organizations.

He said, for example, that one cubic meter (about 35 cubic feet) contains “around 32,500 surgical masks, 1,650 safety...