WFP appeals for assistance for Ebola stricken countries

The World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday appealed to the international community to assist Ebola stricken countries like: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea with food and medical assistance to help combat the outbreak.

Ms. Pippa Bradford, WFP Representative and Country Director in Ghana, said food aid was critical because health facilities, aside treating the Ebola patients, would have to feed them also.

She said, on August 25 WFP launched a three-month $ 69.8 million Regional Emergency Operation to provide food assistance to up to 1.3 million people in the cross-border zone of the three affected countries.

Ms. Bradford was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on the sideline of donation of emergency relief items worth 30 million yen by Japan to Liberia as part of efforts to combat the Ebola.

The Country Director said the intention of the WFP was to buy food and move it to the centres where the Ebola patients were being treated; “if you are going to quarantine people, you should be able to feed them.”

She said due to the Ebola outbreak, people were not able to go about their normal activities, which would go a long way to affect the economies of these countries.

Mr. Jean Francois Milhaud, United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) Hub Manager in Ghana, said the organization was playing a critical role in delivering food and medical aid to the Ebola stricken countries.

He said the UNHRD was a network of depots around the world that stores, manages and transports emergency items for humanitarian organizations and by prepositioning these items, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and governments could respond faster and more efficiently to people in need and disasters.

Mr. Milhaud said there are six depots which are strategically located near disaster-prone areas and these are Accra, Dubai, Subang in Malaysia; Panama City, Las Palmas in Spain; and Brindisi in Italy.