Delivering Aid Requires Planes

Without sufficient funding, the UN is grounding the entire West African fleet of its vital Humanitarian Aid Service (UNHAS), the aerial service that flies aid workers to areas that cannot be reached by ground. The impact of this shutdown, in numbers:

In 2008, UNHAS carried more than 360,000 humanitarian passengers and 15,000 metric tons of humanitarian cargo in 16 countries, on 58 chartered aircrafts.

Peacekeepers in Darfur are not the only ones who (still) urgently need helicopters. UNHAS needs about $5 million — money that would be well-spent to deliver so much lifesaving humanitarian aid.

(image from flickr user John & Mel Kots under a Creative Commons license)