Financial gap U.N. flights

July 31 UPI United Nations, air service that shuttles aid workers to locations in Africa could shut down because of a financial shortfall, the organization's food program said.Flights to Chad, where 4,000 humanitarian workers fly monthly to help refugees from Darfur and internally displaced Chadians, could be grounded as early as Aug. 15, the World Food Program said Friday in a news release. The flights need $6.7 million to stay aloft until the end of the year.

Air service to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea could end Aug. 30, if it does not receive the required $3.3 million to remain in operation until the end of 2009, the U.N. food unit said.
How will WFP reach the hungry? Pierre Carrasse, the U.N. agency's Aviation Branch Chief said. "How will doctors reach their patients?

Operating with a 2009 budget of $160 million, the air service operates in Chad, Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, West Africa and Afghanistan, the United Nations said.