The United Nations has approved the allocation of $3.8 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to help offset disruptions in aid delivery caused by travel restrictions on Ebola-affected countries.
The UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, who made this known in a statement in New York on Thursday, said the fund would be used to bolster the UN Humanitarian Air Service operations in West Africa.
Amos said that the reduction in commercial air travel in the region had hindered the urgent deployment of healthcare personnel and supplies.
“This reduction in commercial air services has severely affected the scale up of the urgent life-saving response to the Ebola outbreak in the region,” she said.
Amos said that the funding would assist the World Food Programme to move humanitarian personnel, medical supplies and equipment rapidly and efficiently to multiple remote locations within Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
She said: “UNHAS is a vital service to the Ebola response. NGOs, UN personnel and other responders will be able to use the service to travel and deliver supplies to people in need and the pilots, crew and support staff are vital parts of the response.”
However, humanitarian partners have received $7.6 million from CERF in support of their initial response to the Ebola outbreak in four countries, including emergency health care and food assistance.
Report said Guinea got $2.7 million, Liberia received $1.9 million, Nigeria got $1.5 million and Sierra Leone $1.5 million.
CERF was established in 2006 to help humanitarian agencies respond rapidly to new or deteriorating crisis.
UN member states and observers, regional and local authorities, the private sector, foundations and individuals have contributed $3.6 billion to CERF.
The Fund disbursed almost $3.5 billion to help millions of people affected by crises in 88 countries.
PANA/NAN.