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Letters | As coronavirus pandemic upends the world, vital to support flights and workers to keep the aid flowing
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While most of the world self-isolates at home and the skies are emptier than they have been for decades, humanitarian flights transporting life-saving aid are revving up around Asia and the Pacific.
Reaching people in war zones or natural disasters is never easy. With most flights grounded, borders closed and workers in quarantine, delivering supplies to families and communities in need in the Covid-19 era has become the greatest challenge the World Food Programme (WFP) has faced in its nearly 60-year history.
Covid-19 may be our biggest test yet. But this is when WFP steps up. On May 10, a WFP-chartered plane carrying Covid-19 medical supplies and aid workers left Kuala Lumpur. The destination: Yangon, Myanmar, where commercial international flights have been suspended since March.
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Also from Kuala Lumpur, one of the few places in the region where international connections are still possible, WFP’s humanitarian flights are coming to Bangladesh, bringing in supplies for the Covid-19 response in the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.
The humanitarian community in Afghanistan can now rotate their personnel in and out of the country, with flights connecting Kabul and Doha. Similar operations are planned for the Pacific Island countries, which are even more reliant on air transport for basic goods and services.
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In the coming days, we plan to connect more operations in Asia and the Pacific to our logistics hubs in China and Malaysia. From there, vital supplies are being dispatched to the Covid-19 front lines in other parts of the world.
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