Relief Supplies From Accra Drop To West Africa

Wednesday September 30, 2009
By Our Reporter

THE United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD), has dispatched a ninth shipment of urgently needed relief items to victims in recent floods which have hit West Africa.

Tarpaulins, sleeping mats, mosquito nets and other items, have been sent to countries across the region including Burkina Faso and Niger, on behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC)

A news release from WFP last Friday said since the onset of the floods, much-needed essential items including medicines and drugs for the World Health Organisation (WHO), sanitation and kitchen supplies for the IFRC and High Energy Biscuits for WFP, have been dispatched to flood victims in countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, and Senegal, from the Accra UNHRD.

“The UNHRD in Accra continues to play a critical role in helping vulnerable people affected by emergencies all over Africa,” said Martin Walsh the depot manager.

“By the amount of time which would have been used to transport these urgent supplies from the next closest depot in Europe and also significantly reduced costs for organisations using the Ghana facilities,” he said.

The release said the Accra UNHRD was part of a global network of five hubs which WFP, established to enable humanitarian organisations to respond to emergencies within 24/28 hours.

The depots, he said, are strategically located to serve the whole world: Brindisi/Italy for Europe, northern and eastern Africa, Accra/Ghana for the rest of Africa.

Dubai/UAE for the Middle East,Subang/Malaysia for South East Asia and Panama City/Panama for Latin America.

It said the UNHRD network was managed by WFP, but provides emergency response facilities such as storage, logistics support and services, to the UN family, international humanitarian agencies, governmental and non-governmental organisations.

“Currently the IFRC, Irish Aid, SWISS Red Cross, WFP, WHO, UNHCR and UNFPA, are some of the users of the 12,500 m2 depot in Accra,” the release said.

It said since operations began in 2007, the Accra depot had dispatched critically needed items to 42 emergencies in 17 African countries including Liberia, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Central African Republic, Niger, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The depot played a key role transporting High Energy Biscuits and river boats to flood-affected victims in parts of northern Ghana in 2007,” he said.

It said donors for the Accra warehouse include the Government of Ghana which donated land for its construction, Ireland, Italy, European Union, USA, France, Norway, Netherlands, Greece, Australia and Canada.

“WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide.

In 2009 WFP aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries,” it concluded.

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