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GENEVA / FOOD WFP AIR DROPS
STORY: GENEVA / FOOD WFP AIR DROPS
TRT: 02:20
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 12 APRIL 2016 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lüscher, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“This morning we conducted another successful air drop over Deir ez-Zor in Syria. This is following Sunday’s successful first air drop this month. We dropped off rice, chickpeas and beans, 26 palettes in reach-the-drop-zone. That is enough for 2, 000 people for one month.”
4. Medium shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lüscher, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“We got extremely good cooperation from several partners in the international community, we got for example on a very practical level excellent meteorological data from multiple sources including the UK, Jordan, Russia and Syria. We got excellent support from Russian, Canadian and US based parachute companies to source various high altitude capable parachute systems.”
6. Medium shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lüscher, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
”The big important news is, it is more than 2,000 people with today’s airdrop that will get food. The last time we were in that town, we were able to reach Deir ez- Zor with humanitarian assistance, was two years ago. So this is good news, indeed. But nevertheless, the sieges should be really lifted”.
8. Close up, journalist
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lüscher, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“This is gonna take weeks, and we gonna keep on going, and we gonna keep on trying and we gonna keep on saying also, you know with everybody on the ground, that we can get in in other ways. But we gonna keep on going until we reach all of the people that need food. But obviously, just doing the math, you are right, it will take a long time”.
10. Wide shot, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lüscher, Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP):
“It is very hard on the ground. But for example, if you recall from when we got the food convoys in other places, you got one convoy in and immediately there was food for like 40,000 people for one month in one convoy.”
12. Close up, journalist
13. Close up, journalist
14. Wide shot, press briefing room
For the second time in two days the World Food Programme (WFP) today (12 Apr) made a successful air drop of food supplies to suffering civilians in Syria. Twenty-six pallets with basic food items to sustain 2, 000 people for one month were dropped over Deir-ez-Zor, an ISIS-controlled area.
WFP’s Spokesperson, Bettina Lüscher, told the media in Geneva “this morning we conducted another successful air drop over Deir-ez-Zor in Syria. This is following Sunday’s successful first air drop this month. We dropped off rice, chickpeas and beans, 26 pallets in reach-the-drop-zone. That is enough for 2, 000 people for one month.”
After try outs in Jordan on how to improve the accuracy of the operation, and changes in the packing and altitude, air drops were successful. According to WFP, these operations were mainly possible thanks to “extremely good cooperation from several partners in the international community”.
The WFP spokesperson said that they had received “excellent meteorological data from multiple sources including the UK, Jordan, Russia and Syria as well as from Russian, Canadian and US based parachute companies to source various high altitude capable parachute systems.”
All of the pallets landed in the drop zone, Lüscher noted. Local partners such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) secured a drop zone on the ground and made sure that there were no people in the drop zone.
Lüscher also said that it has been two years since the last time humanitarian assistance was delivered in that area, stressing that “the sieges should be really lifted.”
Combined, the two recent air drops reached 4,500 people with badly needed basic food items. There are, however, some 200,000 people living in the Deir-ez-Zor region, and reaching all of them will require "a long time", WFP said.
“This is going to take weeks, and we going to keep on going, and we are going to keep on trying and we are going to keep on saying also, you know with everybody on the ground, that we can get in in other ways. But we are going to keep on going until we reach all of the people that need food. But obviously, just doing the math, you are right, it will take a long time,” Lüscher said.
She noted that airdrops are always “the last resort since they are much more expensive than food convoys and the amount of food to distribute is limited as well.” She also said “it is very hard on the ground. But for example, if you recall from when we got the food convoys in other places, you got one convoy in and immediately there was food for like 40, 000 people for one month in one convoy.”
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