Hollywood stars pay to save endangered Darfur aid flights
KHARTOUM (AFP) — Hollywood stars have donated half a million dollars to the World Food Programme in Darfur, following warnings that cash shortages could ground its humanitarian flights, the UN agency said Thursday.
The 500,000 dollars from Not On Our Watch, founded by actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, producer Jerry Weintraub and civil rights lawyer David Pressman, is WFP in Darfur's first donation in 2008, it said.
"World Food Programme planes and helicopters deliver humanitarian workers and urgent supplies to nearly every aid organization working in Darfur," said Clooney in a statement distributed by the WFP.
"Without immediate additional funding, humanitarian aid in the region will be crippled. We are proud to help ensure the survival of this lifesaving program and strongly encourage others to do the same," he added.
On Monday, the WFP said escalating banditry had halved its food deliveries in Darfur and that without immediate cash, it would ground its humanitarian flights at the end of March.
The WFP representative in Sudan, Kenro Oshidari, said other donors were in touch and voiced hope that more funds will arrive before the end of month.
Flights cost 6.2 million dollars to operate monthly. WFP says around 8,000 relief workers in Darfur, who provide essential food assistance, water and health care services, use the flights each month.
This includes 3,000 passengers on the six helicopters travelling to the most remote parts of Darfur, unreachable due to insecurity and lack of road access.
In Darfur, the United Nations says at least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes after ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated regime in February 2003.
