unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (08/28/89)
LUTHERANS APPEAL FOR FUNDS FOR SUDAN AIRLIFT (Reuter Library Report, August 24, 274 words, DATELINE: NAIROBI) The Lutheran World Federation appealed for funds on Thursday for its food airlift to the besieged Sudanese town of Juba, saying the operation would run out of money next week. The twice-daily Lutheran flights from Nairobi to Juba are the only regular supply link left for the town's 300,000 population, most of whom are refugees from Sudan's civil war. "It's the real lifeline of Juba," Bob Koepp, the Lutheran World Federation's relief coordinator for southern Sudan, told Reuters. But he said the airlift would have to close down next week unless fresh funds were received immediately. "To keep a Hercules going you need about a million dollars a month," Koepp said. No truck convoys have reached Juba since last September and the U.N. World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which flew food into the town earlier this year, have shut down their operations there. This leaves the Lutheran flights from Nairobi and the occasional plane from Khartoum as Juba's only supply line. Koepp said there were six weeks of food supplies stockpiled in the government-held town, which is surrounded by guerrillas of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army. But he said these stocks would dwindle rapidly if the Lutheran airlift stopped. The Lutheran World Federation has flown more than 12,100 tonnes of food into Juba since November last year and 600 tonnes into the rebel-held town of Torit. Koepp said the organisation was ready to expand relief flights to the government-held town of Yei near the Zaire border and the rebel-controlled settlement of Bor on the river Nile if funds were forthcoming. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-